Twitter: What It Is, How It Works

Twitter is a social media tool that lets you send short, 140-character instant messages - through a web site or a mobile phone - that answers the simple question: "What are you doing right now?" Since its launch, it has been described as everything from a useful marketing and customer tool to a self-indulgent Intenet fad. Since its launch in 2006, Twitter has shown it has staying power and definite utility for a growing number of users.

Created by Author

Susan MacDonald

Subject: Cyberculture

Tags:social media, tweet, twitter

Twitter For Newbies: What It Is, How It Works

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Inside the Guide

Reference
Twitter "Accessories" or Related Services

Web Sites
Examples of Twitter at Work

Twitter Controversies

Books and Articles

Reference

Twitter

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter

Twitter is a social networking and micro-blogging service. It enables its users to send and read other users' updates (known as tweets), which are text-based posts of up to 140 characters in length.

Web Sites

Twitter - What are you doing?

http://www.twitter.com/

Send status notices through your cell phone, instant messenger, or via the Web, and notify friends and followers of the little things you're up to during the day.

Twitter: Login and start Twittering today

http://twitter.com/home

Twitter is a free social messaging utility for staying connected in real-time. Here's how you get started: log in, create an account and start Twittering.

Twitter Search

http://search.twitter.com/

Search Twitter's user-posts to find out what's happening right now. Helpful if you're tracking some one or a specific issue and need to know what's happening from moment to moment...or historically.

Twitter Blog: Opportunity Knocks

http://blog.twitter.com/

Want to find out what's going at Twitter? Check out the Twitter blog.

Twitter Support

http://help.twitter.com/

spam: follow our spam profile and report Twitter spam via direct message ... Mark, Del, Andrea, Charles, and Crystal- follow us on Twitter, we're here to help! ...

Twitter Controversies

Sure, its servers crash occasionally. And in early April 2009, Twitter was hit with some kind of malware attack. Read more.

Twitter Blog: Wily Weekend Worms (4/12/2009)

http://blog.twitter.com/2009/04/wily-weekend-worms.html

From the Twitter Blog: "On a weekend normally reserved for bunnies, a worm took center stage. A computer worm is a self-replicating computer program sometimes introduced by folks with malicious intent to do some harm to a network. Please note that no passwords, phone numbers, or other sensitive information was compromised as part of these attacks."

Business Insider: Twitter Answers Why It Crashes All the Time

http://www.businessinsider.com/2008/5/twitter-explains-constant-twitter-outages-on-twitter

Too much traffic...just one of the reasons that Twitter can crash.

CNET: The Case of Twitter's missing followers (July 2008)

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13515_3-9998595-26.html

"Nothing could have caused more uproar in the blogosphere about Twitter than followers suddenly disappearing. We have all complained about and tolerated Twitter's downtime issues, but seemingly losing your hard-earned followers is something that users might not stand for."

Books and Articles

Twitter Power: How to Dominate Your Market One Tweet at a Time

http://www.amazon.com/Twitter-Power-Dominate-Market-Tweet/dp/0470458429

Get the business leader's guide to using Twitter to gain competitive advantage. Since 2006, forward-thinking companies like Apple, JetBlue, Whole Foods, and GM have discovered the instant benefits of Twitter.

Twitter Tips, Tricks, and Tweets

http://www.amazon.com/Twitter-Tips-Tricks-Tweets-McFedries/dp/0470529695

If youre one of the millions of users joining Twitter to connect to friends, family, and interest groups; or to follow the conversation and find out whats happening beyond your doorstep, then this

Twitter Revolution: How Social Media and Mobile Marketing is Changing the Way We Do Business&Market Online

http://www.amazon.com/Twitter-Revolution-Marketing-Changing-Business/dp/1934275077

NO RULES The revolution is underway. The power of social media lies with the people who use tools like Twitter.com. You decide how to use your power. Our goal is not to create rules to follow on

Twitter - Successful Management of the Follow Limit

http://ezinearticles.com/?Twitter---Successful-Management-of-the-Follow-Limit&id=2006256

Well, you can log in to your Twitter account and, on your home page, click on ' ... Add More Organization to Your Follow/Follower Management ...

The Ultimate Twitter Revenue Model - ReadWriteWeb

http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/the_ultimate_twitter_revenue_model.php

Bloggers are ReadWriteWeb offer a variety of ways that Twitter can eventually turn a profit and that entrepreneurs can use Twitter to their advantage now.

Twitter Means Business: How Microblogging Can Help or Hurt your Company

http://www.amazon.com/twitter-means-business-microblogging-company/dp/1600051189

Millions of Internet users have fallen in love with the Twitter "microblogging" service, which lets them swap brief text "tweets." Now companies are embracing the service to engage customers, promote

Twitter API: Up and Running: Learn How to Build Applications with the Twitter API

http://www.amazon.com/Twitter-API-Running-Learn-Applications/dp/0596154615

This groundbreaking book provides you with the skills and resources necessary to build web applications for Twitter. Perfect for new and casual programmers intrigued by the world of microblogging,

New York Times/David Pogue: Twitter? It's What You Make It

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/12/technology/personaltech/12pogue.html?_r=1&ref=personaltech

Twitter for Dummies

http://www.amazon.com/Twitter-Dummies-Laura-Fitton/dp/0470479914

Not sure how to start? "Twitter for Dummies" shows you how.

Twitter "Accessories" or Related Services

Download your own background, search for various Twitter users or feeds, plot Twitter conversations over time. There are plenty of Twitter-related services and "accessories" waiting for you.

Free Twitter Backgrounds from TwitterBacks.com

http://www.twitterbacks.com/

Go ahead and download the files below and construct your own Twitter background. ... Oh, and don't forget that once you have your new Twitter background done, you ...

Twitter

http://twitter.com/badges

Twitter is a free social messaging utility for staying connected in real-time ... Sign in to Twitter. If you've been using Twitter from your phone, click here ...

Twitter Pigeon: Home

http://twitterpigeon.com/

Twitter Pigeon is a new way to use Twitter to answer questions. ... using your twitter account.Tweet a question and twitter pigeon creates an url ...

Twitter Grader | Get Your Twitter Ranking

http://twitter.grader.com/

Twitter Grader : Measure the power and authority of your ... Checkout our new Facebook Grader, see how you rank against other Facebook users. New Features ...

Twitterank

http://twitterank.com/

As the name implies, Twitterank is sort of like Page Rank for twitter users. ... Read more about what I will and won't do with your account info/data in the FAQ. ...

Tweetscan

http://tweetscan.com/alerts.php

Another online tool to help you search for and stay updated on various Twitter messages and users.

Examples of Twitter at Work

COnsultants, customer service reps, authors, marketers, public relations professionals....lots of people already use Twitter for business purposes. Here are a few examples.