8 questions and answers about Twitter

The other day, I received a question regarding how all this Twitter stuff works.  I spent a little time explaining the concepts and then decided that I should write a blog about it.  I’m sure everyone would like to hear about Twitter and how it’s being used for Social Networking and Social Marketing.

A few questions:

1. What is Twitter?
   • Twitter is a microblog that allows the Tweeter to share a complete thought with their followers in 140 characters or less?
   • There is a short video by http://CommonCraft.com  on this subject at the end of this post.
2. What’s a Tweet?
   • A Tweet is a message that is posted via Twitter.
3. Why only 140 characters or less for a Tweet?
   • Based on Text Messaging in phones, you only have 160 characters for texts.  If you reserve 20 characters for the user address, that leaves you with 140 characters to do your message
4. Do I need a Twitter account to use Twitter?
   • The short answer is NO.
     • If all you want to do, is see what people are Tweeting about you can do a few things:
       • To see what I’ve been Tweeting about you would visit an individual Tweet account http://twitter.com/mrwes
   • If you want to participate in all the fun then YES you will need a Twitter account.
   • You need an account if you want to
     • Send your own Tweets
     • follow interesting Tweeters
     • see who is following the Tweeter
     • see who the Tweeter is following
     • Send private Tweets back to the Tweeter
5. Can I quickly see what other people are Twittering about?
   • You can do Web based searching by visiting
     • http://search.twitter.com/
     • http://collecta.com/
   • For Windows you can install software that will help to organize Twitter searches & see nicely formatted tweets from people you’re following.
     • http://tweetdeck.com/beta/
     • http://seesmic.com/desktop.html
6. Do I have to have a phone to use Twitter?
   • No, you can use a browser or a desktop Twitter application to send messages.
7. What will I get out of using Twitter?
   • It depends on how you use it.
     • If you want to build social networks and community, Twitter can help you do that.
     • If you want to utilize it as a marketing tool, you might increase brand awareness.
     • If you want to make lots of money selling Twitter marketing gimicks, I’m not sure if you will be able to pull that one off.  So far, most of what I’ve seen in the way of Twitter marketing gimicks has been unacceptable in my eyes.
8. Where can I find out more about Twitter?
   • The twitter Guide Book   – http://mashable.com/guidebook/twitter/
   • How to find a job on Twitter – http://mashable.com/2009/03/13/twitter-jobs/