Why Twitter 101: Publish Your Own Headlines

A lot of people still don't "get" Twitter. That's understandable, because although it gets a lot of attention, it's not often explained.

Twitter is what's called a "micro-blogging service." In other words, it's a way to publish whatever you want, but each message is limited to 140 characters. Other people can read what you write on your Twitter page (ours is http://twitter.com/chcs) or they can "follow" you, which means that your messages, called "tweets," become part of their Twitter feed, where everyone's messages are displayed together. There's much more, of course, but that's the basic idea.

The messages tend to fall into several categories.

• Status updates. What's going on in people's lives, like "going to a movie," or "the dog ate my homework."
• What people are thinking about. "Feeling cheerful," or snatches of song lyrics.
• Information about news events. Eyewitness information and reactions. These can be "tagged" with a particular subject line, so that they can be searched for.
• Pointers to other plces on the web, like articles, photos, and blog posts. When this blog article is finished, I'll probably post a tweet telling people where it is.

So who do people choose to follow on Twitter?

• People they know.
• Celebrities.
• People who have interesting things to say.

So what's different about Twitter? Interestingly, not much. It's more about how they've put the pieces together.

• The limited length isn't new; SMS and instant messaging have that as well. But those are one-to-one communication, not broadcast.
• Telling the world what you're thinking about isn't new; Facebook and LinkedIn also have that (although you could argue that Twitter did it first). But Facebook and LinkedIn are social media, in which people communicate with people they know. With Twitter, anyone can follow anyone else who has a public page. Thus, Twitter isn't really a social medium in the same sense as Facebook and LinkedIn are.

Is reading Twitter feeds important? No. Is it a time-waster? It can be, although you can control what you see and how it's displayed. Is it fun and interesting? Mostly yes.

Is posting to Twitter important? Twitter can be a useful tool for individuals and organizations who have a story to tell or a product to sell. Think of your 140-character tweet as a headline. When written well, it can be used to entice visits to your web site or blog; at very least, it keeps you at the top of people's minds so that when they need your services, they'll think of you.