I've become quite a twitterholic the past few days. In fact, let's check the stats. Yeah, I've been pretty much addicted the past few days. Why? Well, there's a few things I love about Twitter:
- Twitter is short, sweet, and easy to use.
The concept is simple: 140 characters to tell the world what you're
doing. I don't think you can get more simple than that. No complex
forms, no huge commitments, just a simple request, and your simple
answer. It has a wonderful web interface, and the settings allow you
completely customize your page's background along with colors for
fonts. It's just a breeze to use and easy to look at, which is a
welcome change compared to Facebook or MySpace.
- It's an awesome way to network with highly connected bloggers.
I think Scoble puts it best:
You’re communicating to the world that you’d like to be listened to (golden rule: treat people how you’d like to be treated).
Twitter is becoming the heart of the Interblag.
It's what bloggers are doing when they're NOT blogging. Obviously yes,
we all have our jobs and commitments, but Twitter is a way to connect
with those people between their blog, vlogs, or however they
communicate with the internet at large. It's a way for those who are
connected to quickly poll, grow, and comment with their audience. The
value to bloggers to be active on Twitter is absolutely critical: these
are the people who you WANT to be reading your blog. They're the people
that will link your blog to others, they know where to share it and who
to share it with. They're all here folks. Come and find them.
- It's a great way to keep in touch with friends.
I think Twitter in Plain English hits the nail on head: Twitter is a way to converse with friends in a
way that isn't that important to email them, but doesn't necessarily
demands their instant attention. Of course now, you can use Jabber/XMPP
to interface with Twitter. Anyway, I find it to be a neat way to
keeping in touch with people I know in the real world online that isn't
exactly bugging them over AIM or Facebook. Also, if you're concerned
about random people like me following your every move, you can make
your page private and only allow those you approve to watch your
updates.
- It's just fun to use!
What really gets me with this are the fantastic clients that seem to be populating the net.
The Twitter API is readily accessible and easy to implement, and that's
extremely important as it seems that most people use twitter through
outside clients or through text messaging rather than their web
interface. My personal favorite at the moment is Twhirl,
which is an Adobe AIR client. It's got a neat, clean interface and
colors are customizable, so I'm having fun with it. I rarely have to go
to the website anymore, the API is so open that the majority of the
functionality is accessible through outside clients.
So, why haven't you created a Twitter account yet? I guarantee you that it'll do nothing but help you get
your blog known, and connect with others who are on the same quest.
Feel free to follow me as well, I'll make sure to follow you.