Twitter is a social network where individuals post text limited to 140 characters for each post. Anyone can create an account and publish their thoughts, musings, rants, links to popular items, and ideas to their pages. These real-time writers then follow other users and in turn are followed; "following" a user simply implies that an individual will see that user's postings or "tweets".
Twitter has been viewed by some as a "cultural revolution". [1]
Twitter describes itself: "Twitter is a real-time information network powered by people all around the world that lets you share and discover what’s happening now. Twitter asks 'what’s happening' and makes the answer spread across the globe to millions, immediately." [2]
Twitter's popularity came about in 2007. Although Twitter became popular in 2007, its cultural explosion onto the social networking scene began in early 2009. Since then, Twitter's unique visitor count has increased 12 fold; the site had 73.5 million unique visitors in January of 2010, compared to only 6 million unique visitors in the January 2009. [3]
Compete.com ranked it as the third most popular social networking site on the internet.
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Origins
Founded by Jack Dorsey in 2006, Twitter was used as an internal communication tool for his company Odeo. Its popularity exploded at a conference. Dorsey was initially excited by the prospects of Short Message System (SMS). Dom Sagolla is also noted as being a co-creator of Twitter. He is extensively known for his book 140 Characters.
In 140 Characters Sagolla expands on the creation of Twitter. After facing competition from Apple and other software companies, Odeo, Inc. needed to reinvent itself. This began with a day-long brainstorming session that involved Dorsey, Sagolla, and other co-creators. As the group enjoyed lunch in South Park, Dorsey described his idea for "a service that uses SMS to tell small groups what you are doing." [4]
Main Stream Media Twitter Use
Twitter has been used for marketing, social networking, grass root efforts, political campaigns, and organizing emergency response.
- Iranian Elections
During the 2009 Iran presidential elections protests broke out over Mahmoud Ahmadinejad victory. Iran closed down most forms of communication that went outside of the country. Twitter was an exception and protesters used it to broadcast their message to the world. [5]
- 2010 Haiti Earthquake
Following the 7.0-magnitude earthquake that struck Haiti in January 2010, there was a massive outcry through Twitter to donate funds for disaster relief. Due to Twitter's popularity, developments not only on the disaster, but promotion to aid the relief efforts spread quickly. This communal effort lead to an influx of donations to organizations such as the Red Cross, YELE HAITI and Hope for Haiti Now to help come to the aid of the Haitians.
- 2008 Presidential Election
This was a strategy that was used during President Obama's election. This was used to help get the younger voters involved. This was also where President Obama thanked everyone for their help when he won the election and this was the first place where President Obama first announced who he was going to have for his vice president.
Philosophy of Twitter
"At Twitter, we often think about what it means to build a company today and our role in making our community and the world a better place. We believe that the open exchange of information can have a positive global impact and will actively work to support this principal in everything that we do." [6]
In his book 140 Characters, Dom Sagolla explains how Twitter has changed the world of writing by limiting its consumers to only a certain amount of characters for every statement they have to make:
"Even in the tiny we find truth. The heraldry of honesty and sincerity is unmistakable at this range. 140 characters is just enough to distinguish description from deception, simplicity from simple-mindedness, and gravitas from guile" (6).
"For reporters concerned with inches and word count, the short form feels a bit like writing on a grain of sand" (8).
"In our hands now is the most powerful, ubiquitous, indomitable communication tool in history. What will you do with it?" (7).
Twitter Words
- A free social networking and micro-blogging service.
- Twitterer
- A person who uses Twitter.
- Tweet (noun)
- A message or update sent on Twitter.
- Tweet (verb)
- The act of posting a message or update on Twitter.
- Twitterzine
- A magazine published through Twitter.
- Twoosh
- A full 140 character Tweet.
- Twitter Stream
- A collection of Tweets, usually belonging to one user, in chronological order.
- ReTweet
- Forwarding or copying another persons Tweet while giving the original author credit for it.
- Hashtag
- The # symbol followed by an easily searchable term to associate the tweet to others similar to it in topic
- For example #ENGL328 would allow anyone to see this update who searched for #ENGL328 not only the authors followers.
- DM or Direct Message
- A private "email" between one twitter user to another.
- Mention
- (@username) A tweet designated for a specific user on the twitter stream. Also known as a reply to the users tweet.
- Follow (verb)
- The act of choosing to be updated whenever that user updates their twitter stream.
Going Mobile With Twitter
If you have a mobile device that connects to internet there are numerous applications that you can usemto connect to Twitter directly from your device. This is a list of just a few:
- iPhone & iPod Touch Apps
| iTwtr | PocketTweets | TwitterView | Simple Tweet | Twootball iPhone |
| instatweet | qTweeter | Tweetdeck | politicoTracker Twitter Edition | Twitteriffic |
| Ohpan | Duo | Twit Tuner | Twittelator Pro | Statuso |
- Blackberry Apps
| TwitterBerry | SocialScope | TinyTwitter |
| Twibble | Blackbird | bbtweet |
| UberTwitter | TweetGenius | Tweeteev |
- T-Mobile Apps
| TwidRoid | Twitli | TwitterDroid |
- Windows Mobile Apps
| ceTwit | Twitter Answers | |
| GPSTwit | Twitter2Go | Quakk |
| PocketTwit | TwitToday |
- Symbian Apps
| Twittix | Twitxr | Tweets60 |
- A Few More Mobile Apps
| GPS Twit | Tiny Twitter | Abiro Jitter | Twitteresce | Twitter2Go | Twitter deBolsillo |
| Twitter Mobile | Book Price Check | twe2.com | TwitterMobile | Synble | Map My Tracks |
| SimplyTweet | Touch Poet | twitstar | Twitter Answers | m.slandr.net | twnkl.org |
References
140 Characters [7]
About Twitter [8]
Tech Crunch [9]
Twitter's Freedom to Iran [10]
59 Twitter Mobile Apps [11]
