What is Twitter?

Wednesday, January 28, 2009
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You may have noticed something called Twitter on my blog. This post is to explain about that.

What is Twitter?
Twitter is a social networking and micro-blogging service of up to 140 characters per blog. Currently this is a free service at www.Twitter.com.

What is micro-blogging?
Technically this is a brief message via either text, instant message, email, web, or digital audio. Sent in real time.

How is Twitter used?
Using Twitter, users can send and read other users' updates by 'following' each other. These updates are called 'tweets' or referred to as 'twittering'.

Using Twitter is an extremely effective method of distributing information in real-time. It is great for networking - it's a "social networking" tool.

The updates for Twitter can be made using the Twitter online service, or by using one of the many free applications that can be installed to manage Twitter messages.

What do people tweet about?
People tweet about anything and everything! From hellos to goodnights, to what restaurant they are rushing off to, how they are feeling today, what website they might be perusing, links to articles... anything at all. The latest hot trend with Twitter is to use it for marketing purposes.

What does Canada Mom Deals tweet about?
I may be tweeting a conversation with another tweeter. Or I may tweet about my latest blog post. Or I may tweet about deals and freebies that I choose not to post on Canada Mom Deals since I am trying to keep all CMD posts relevant to Canadian mommies - so you might want to check out my tweets too!

How do I view Canada Mom Deals tweets?
You don't need to join Twitter to view my updates. On my blog there is a section called "Follow me on Twitter" like the picture below. Immediately below that are a few of my recent 'tweets'. If you want to view all my tweets prior to those, click on the "Follow me on Twitter" icon, like the one below.



You can also view my tweets anytime by going to www.twitter.com/canadamomdeals.

I decided to join Twitter. Now what?
If you are already a Twitter user, follow me! If you know other Twitter users, find and follow them. You might check out who I'm following, and follow the people that may be of interest to you (the objective is NOT to follow everyone or to have the most followers, although some people seem to think that is the objective).

To help get you started, here is a link to an article on why, how's and what's about Twitter. Also another great Twitter how-to site is www.TwiTip.com.

Below are three well-known Twitter people to follow. They were among the first people I followed and through them I was able to get a better idea of what Twitter was all about.
  • http://twitter.com/problogger - Darren Rowse, the man behind Problogger, makes a living as a professional blogger. He also blogs Twitip.com, which is a popular Twitter tip blog.
  • http://twitter.com/JohnChow - John Chow is a Vancouver millionaire. He made some of those millions by blogging. Read his bio on his site, it will give you a good idea about this man's sense of humour. He does blog about what he's eating though so if that turns you off you might skip him. :D
Here are lists of some local Vancouverites and businesses that Twitter.
So what do you tweet about? Observe what others are tweeting to get an idea of the Tweeter universe. Most Tweeters are super friendly. So be yourself and jump right in and comment at other people's tweets. Twitter is one of those things in life where you just have to use it to know how to do it and what it's all about.

There are tons of free articles on the Internet about tweeting. Here are a few to start you off:

Additionally, you will see tweeters mention RT, #, and hashtags. These things I can't find mention of in the Twitter Help, so I'll tell save you some trouble and give you some info here.
  • RT means Retweet - basically, copying another person's tweet and tweeting it yourself. It is cool to Retweet, since it can't always be about you, you know! When a retweet is done, you should include the original Tweeter's information. Some of the Tweeter apps have a 'retweet' function, such as TweetDeck or Twitterfox.
  • Hashtags identify a topic on Twitter. The # sign is added in front of the word to make it a topic; you can then search on the hashtag to find all messages on this topic. Here is a link to another explanation of hashtags.

Once you are up and 'tweeting', you might find these interesting:

Cheers and happy tweeting!

Lucia
@CanadaMomDeals
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1 Response to "What is Twitter?"

  1. Unknown Said,

    I have had friends tell me to join Twitter but I honestly had no idea what it was. Now that I have more of an idea, I might join, I probably wont post much but it could be fun to follow friends. Thanks for this post.

    Mia | Cowan Insurance Group

    Posted on Thursday, December 26, 2013 at 10:31:00 AM PST

     

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