So, Everyone's Tweeting, But What's Twitter

So all your friends in the office are Tweeting, spending as much time on Twitter as they do on YouTube, but what is it? According to Wikipedia:

"Twitter is a social networking and micro-blogging service that enables its users to send and read other users' updates (known as tweets), which are text-based posts of up to 140 characters in length."

To say that Twitter's popularity has exploded would be an understatement. Started in 2006, the service has catapulted into mainstream vernacular and has seen spectacular growth spurts (i.e. over 900%) in the last 12 months alone. One could almost say today, that if you're not tweeting, you're definitely not cool.

To the casual user, Twitter is a way to keep friends in the loop about all the little things they have going on in life. Described in the video below, Twitter is a way to fill people in on all the little details in life you wouldn't include in an email or phone conversation.




But, to the professional, whether you be a business person, journalists, or professional blogger, twitter can be revolutionary in keeping your network abreast of all the little things that are relevant to your line of work. Take what I do for example. I own and run the popular blog PCBDaily.com, a news and information site all about Panama City Beach, Florida. I use Twitter for a variety of reasons. Twitter is cool, because I have my mobile phone set up so I can send updates via text or the app on my Blackberry from anywhere. Our readers can keep up with what is going on regardless of where we are. If I'm at a public meeting, I can Tweet updates as they unfold; at a real estate auction, I can Tweet breaking prices; if I'm driving down the street, I can Tweet that I just saw some crazy drunk spring breaker crush a can over his head (weird, I know); get the picture?

The uses for Twitter are only limited by your imagination. Our readers can set up their mobile devices to receive updates via text from us so they can keep up without even turning on their computer.

In addition to dripping with awesomeness as a stand alone application, Twitter is massively extendable through third-party applications. For instance, PCBDaily uses the self-hosted Wordpress blogging platform and has a plugin installed that will automatically Tweet our account when a new blog post is published. This is great because our "followers" know whenever we have a new article available. I also have my personal Facebook 'status' updated with our latest Tweets. I can see the gears turning in your head as you are realizing the network of connectivity we have created.

The uses for Twitter are only limited by your imagination. This is the 1st of a series detailing what Twitter is and how you can use it to enhance your social network, create greater visibility on the web and ultimately use it to find new clients, customers or create new opportunities for your business.