So what is Twitter all about?

In my last article I introduced the latest buzz terms “social media” and “social networking” and in today’s post I will introduce one of the current fastest growing social networks in the world, Twitter.  This post will all be about why people are tweeting with their tweeps in the twitterverse.. WOW, wasn’t that a mouthful.  Twitter is all about telling people in 140 characters or less what you are doing at this present time, right? Well it can be, however it can be a whole lot more.

Twitter can also be  a way of networking with your peers and sharing information and knowledge which usually includes a short URL to a blog post or article, hence Twitter is also referred to as a micro blogging service.  As an example, upon completion of this post I will share this article via a number of social networking sites including Twitter using a short URL service such bit.ly or tinyurl.com which links my tweet back to this post.

Now back to the basics.  Users of Twitter send and read messages known as “tweets” which are text based only.  Each Twitter account has a profile page which lists the user’s “followers” (or people that have subscribed to your account) and “following” (people that you are following) and a “Bio” (short for biography) where you have up to 160 characters to promote yourself, your skills, your interests to everyone else in the twitterverse.  You also have the ability to upload a profile picture, your location, a URL to your blog or personal site such as Facebook or My Space and your real name.  In addition to your real name you also have the opportunity to select your “vanity” URL such as http://twitter.com/socialtechgeek

Once you have have your profile complete you are ready to begin following others by clicking on the follow button of another users profile such as in the below example of Oprah’s profile. You can easliy do a people search within the web based interface of Twitter and follow your friends, other tweeps with similar interestes and your favourite celebrities ofcourse.

I personally have 2 Twitter accounts with the following Biographies targeting two different audiences;

@socialtechgeek or http://twitter.com/socialtechgeek – Ramblings on social media, everything techie and everything in between. I’m a MAC and a PC.

@georgekhalil or http://twitter.com/georgekhalil – SharePoint, Exchange, MCITP, MCTS, Blogger.

The latter is more personal and targeted at IT Pro’s whereas @socialtechgeek feeds of this blog amongst others providing you with up to the hour updates with regards to everything of geeky nature.

Just to provide you with some statistics on Twitter’s splurge into the social networking arena, Twitter is now ranked as the fastest-growing social networking site for February 2009. Twitter had a monthly growth of 1,382 percent, way ahead of Facebook which had an increase of only 228 percent.

So what are you waiting for?  Sign up for a Twitter account and be sure to follow my tweets on either @georgekhalil or @socialtechgeek or both. In upcoming posts I will explain some of the advanced features of Twitter such as utilising services such as Twitterfeed for RSS Feeds, Twitpic for sharing photos via tweets and other services that will enhance your Twitter experience.  I will also be road testing a number of deskop Twitter clients that further enhance your Twitter experience.

Until next time