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Short and tweet
Want to let the world know what’s happening in your life and the world around? Probably, you should start Twittering
Barack Obama finally returned to Twitter recently, after the White House nearly took away his Blackberry. Jennifer Aniston dumped her boyfriend John Mayer for spending too much time on Twitter.
And, Ashton Kutcher and Demi Moore have made Twitter and their fans a part of their life. Recently, after posting a candid picture of his wife in a bikini, he made up to Demi Moore by making his followers wake her up with thousands of tweets of ‘Good Morning’ messages or a “Love Tsunami” as he called it.
More recently, as Kal Penn is set to make the jump from House to The White House, the actor used Twitter to thank his fans.
Best of both worlds
Touted as the next big thing after blogging and networking, Twitter combines the best of both worlds by catering to the needs of people to network without them needing to fill up too much information.
So, what is Twitter? Twitter is your online status message. It tells people what you are doing in two lines. So, the more frequently you post an update online, the more you are in touch with people who are interested in knowing what you are up to.
Think of it as blogging meets SMS meets Facebook. A recent Nielsen report notes that Twitter has recorded over a 1,000 per cent increase in its user base over the last year with over seven million unique visitors in February this year.
A survey by ComScore puts the latest figures at 10 million users. Another report estimates that the average age of Twitterers (or Tweeters) is 31 and that Twitter attracts more working adults than teens or college students.
“It was the techies who first got into blogging and podcasting. So, it’s just a matter of time before Twitter, too, becomes mainstream. Also, when you are working, you have a few more things to talk about,” says popular blogger Kiruba who cut down on his daily posts after discovering Twitter over two years ago.
“Yes, Twittering has cannibalised blogging. And, most of the Twittering happens during working hours, when kids are in college without Internet connectivity. That’s probably why working adults Twitter more.”
Chennai is one of the cities in the country that took to Twitter right from its early days. Shravan Dharmaraj (who tweets as Shravanraj), a 27-year-old Chartered Accountant, has been twittering for over one-and-a-half years.
“I do a lot of share trading. Twitter, unlike any other social networking platform, gives me the freedom to document my impromptu thoughts as and when they occur. It is like talking to your alter ego. It helps you to connect to the world,” he says.
Other uses too
More than just social interaction, Twitter is being increasingly employed for breaking news, updates on politics, sports, entertainment and events around the world. Twitter has tied-up with Facebook for directly posting Tweets as status updates, a masterstroke if you consider that Facebook gets over 66 million unique visitors a month. Twitter also recently tied up with Wordpress. So, you will be able to incorporate your Twitter messages as a part of your blog.
“Once you have taken appropriate security measures, you can use Twitter to collaborate with your co-workers in a corporate environment,” says Rajesh Bhaskar, Senior Technical Architect, HCL Technologies. “For example, I created a Twitter application that informs my team about changes in the status of my project. You can create innovative applications using programs specifically written for Twitter. For instance, recently, we have created an application combining Twitter and Google Maps for a logistics company that allows their customers to see the status of their shipment and also lets them contact the company in case of delay.”
There are over 200 Twitter-based applications such as TwitterSearch, TwitterStats, TweetScan and TwitterTroll that make it all the more exciting for geeks and boost the functionality of Twitter but that’s another story. In India, Twitter has just taken its baby steps. Maybe, during the next round of elections, politicians may decide to do an Obama and set the country atwitter.
For DIM-TWITS
How to get started: Go to http://twitter.com Get yourself an account and you are all set to keep update your status online. You can also use your Twitter account to automatically update your blog and Facebook status messages.
Tweet: A short update of not more than 140 characters on “What are you doing”
Followers: People who are subscribing to your updates (tweets).
Following: People you are interested in following by subscribing to their updates.
DM: Direct Message anybody who is following you.
@: At. When you want the person you are tweeting about to know are referring to him/her in your update, you prefix their username with @ so that it shows up in his/her Twitter account.
RT: Re-tweet. Relay a tweet made by a fellow Twitterer to everyone following you.
#: Hash. When you have something to say about any specific issue or subject or topic, you could tag it by prefixing your subject with a #
Tweet-up: When a bunch of Twitterers decides to meet-up for a social interaction.
source: Hindu
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