This 30 minute video explains everything Twitter. There is a watermark on the video, but it is still viewable.
What is it? A free social networking and micro-blogging service that allows users to send "updates" (or "tweets"; text-based posts, up to 140 characters long) to the Twitter website, via short message service (e.g. on a cell phone), instant messaging, or a third-party application such as Twitterrific or Facebook. (wikipedia.org)
STRENGTHS
WEAKNESSES
FREE!
Microblog – short and to-the-point messages
Link ‘tweets’ to cell phone
Communicate directly with others w/o knowing their cell # or email address
Twitter Mash-ups are abundantly available
Connects you to hundreds/thousands of people at once
Messages only limited to 140 characters
Twitter can be fickle – site goes down, tweets are lost or ‘eaten’, etc
Spammers and companies may begin following you
This short video from a company called Common Craft visually explains Twitter.
Insightful: Meaning of life, perspectives on society, etc...
Introduction: Introducing you & what makes you you.
In-the-moment: Breaking News that you witness, granddaughter's first swim meet win, hole in one at the country club.
Inquisitive: A question that you hope other Twitterers (usually called Tweeple) can answer for you (e.g. How long is XX exhibit at the Science Center running?)
Informational: Perhaps you caught an online article about health care reform in Arizona and you want to share the link.
Three ways to send Twitter messages (called Tweets):
1. Public: Type your tweet in the field and press the update button.
2. @ replies: These are public but directed to one person specifically (e.g. @nooccar thanks for the great information in your presentation!)
3. Direct Messages: These are private tweets to one person and are formatted according to my example (e.g. d nooccar Love what you showed me at the workshop, can I pay you to teach my buddies at the VFW?)
Searching
Searching Twitter can be done several ways, but a simple way to begin would be to use Summize for topics and trends.
To search for people who use Twitter, try this link.
Advanced Searching
For Advanced searching using Twitter, check out this news article
Computer Applications
For the full affect of the power of Twitter, you will want to go beyond the web interface (i.e. Twitter.com) and install a small and free Twitter application. Below are two of my favorite Twitter applications (for computers) that I have tried with basic notes for each.
Tweetdeck: Tweetdeck is a free computer application (now available in mobile version, too) that let's you have columns based on replies, main feed (list of tweets from people you follow), search terms, and recommendations. It even has a builtin option to post your tweets to Facebook and can read your Facebook friend's status messages.
Twhirl: Twhirl is smaller and feels simpler to use than Tweetdeck but in actuality is a bit more involved as it posts your tweets to other accounts you may have.
Effective Twitter Examples
Breaking News (e.g. the plane that went down in the Hudson outside NYC last year; celebrity deaths)
Iran conflict during recent election was planned via Twitter
Flash fires in Southern California (citizens tweeted what roads were closed and where not to go)
Politicians (Obama, John McCain, Jeff Flake) (e.g. Obama announced Joe Biden as his running mate via Twitter)
Attribution: The information compiled here was generated from my membership in CyberSalonAZ, a local consortium of instruction technology geeks who really adore one another. Information gleaned specifically from Shelley Rodrigo, Biray Alsac, Alisa Cooper, Alan Leveine, Michelle Blomberg, Lisa Young, et al.
Comments (0)
You don't have permission to comment on this page.