I’m all a-Twitter

Back in November/December, I jumped on the Twitter bandwagon.

First of all, does everyone know Twitter?

It seems like everywhere I go, people are talking about it. Given that I’m in marketing, it’s one of those new “phenomenons” that companies are trying to figure out how to use to their advantage. Like MySpace, Facebook, message boards and blogs, these social networks present quite the challenge to an industry that is losing ground with traditional advertising and public relations. It’s all very interesting.

Anyway, I joined Twitter personally, not professionally. I’ve been on it for a few months now, and it’s pretty cool. I have yet to connect with a lot of real-life friends on it (since there are many who still don’t know about it!), but I’m on with some fellow bloggers, and my cousin. I’ve been “testing it out,” so to speak.

So, if you don’t know what Twitter is, what it’s used for, etc.–It’s basically the “update your status” part of Facebook, stripped away from everything else. You have a limit of 140 characters per “tweet” (which is what you call a Twitter message). You can keep on top of and in touch with friends, family, coworkers, strangers. Whomever. Have a message that’s intended for a specific person, or in reply to a specific tweet? You can call their attention to it by starting it off with @username.

You can post pictures as part of your tweets, and of course, all of this can be done through cell phones. I have TwitterBerry installed for use on my BlackBerry, but if you don’t have a “smart phone”? No worries. You can also Twitter through text and picture messages.

Have a blog? You can also add a Twitter feed to it, for your readers to see what you’re up to and your thoughts in between blog posts. You can see my feed over in the right side bar. See it? Over there ————>

I’m certainly not the best “tweeter,” but hey, whatever. I try.

I went to a luncheon recently at which the power of Twitter was discussed (amongst other things, like blogging, Facebook, etc.). It was pretty amazing. These things are taking over the world! Soon, we won’t be e-mailing at work, we’ll be tweeting. Or, well, that’s what these social networking geniuses want us to believe.

Whenever one of these things takes hold, I always find myself wondering: What are they going to come up with next?