What is Twitter?

Twitter … What is that?  The question i was asked by my parents after they lost their patience cos my tweet deck was shouting every min. When a new tweet is arrived, tweet deck shouts(turrrr .. turrrr… some what like). When my parents we convince that the sound is coming from my laptop, the first question they asked was “Any problem to your laptop its making some weird sound” and i immediately replied no its Twitter. Then they threw second question, because of which is decided to write this post and that was “What is Twitter”.

So i stared explaining them about twitter, its adv, the pune twitter meet up, the concept of followers and following etc.
The same question was asked by plenty of my friends when they saw the pics of Pune twitter meetup in newspapers.

So this is for all the people who are unaware of twitter world, in short a basic course of twitter for them. And i’ll start with the most common question.

What is twitter ?
Twitter is a status-updating or microblogging social networking website but now its more like sharing things quickly with your followers.

What things?
Any thing from what your doing to what you had for lunch/dinner/breakfast a quote,joke, how was ur day, what time
u slept or an interesting link you’ve come across (this is the best use). These are called ‘tweets’.

Followers are?
Followers are same like your friends in Facebook,Orkut,Hi5 etc. Typically they are of similar interests.You can refer to followers or people on twitter as ‘tweeple’ .

How do I followers anyone?
Just like orkut/ facebook, you search for them or you can click on the pics on the followers list of your frnds and add them, if they arent on twitter you can invite them on twitter

What is following?
You can choose to follow others those who share your interests makes it all the more worthwhile. Unless and untill the person whom you are following follows u back, that person will not get your tweets but as you are following him you  will get all his tweets.

How do I follow other people?
Search for your interests and follow if you find anyone that suits you. they may follow you back.

Whats Timeline?
Its what appears on your page and includes tweets from you and those you chose to follow.

Whats Retweet(RT) ?
Its called spreading the word.Like a link/quote,pass it around. Start with “RT” and give credit to the author.

Whats a Direct Message?
In those rare cases of some personal things to be discussed,use a Direct Message or DM.

Still,Why Twitter?
Twitter is a wonderful way to be in touch with your friends and events. The posts are limited to 140 characters (yep just 140),so you cant blabber around.Thus saves your time. Twitter have been used by companies, bloggers and agencies to promote their brand. Promote your own brand today.

Ok I get it, now what?
Ceate an account on twitter here.Do the usual stuff and customize your profile.Note : Ensure you give an about decription for your ‘Bio’.This will help others trying to add you in their network.

Any application for twitter?
Yes there are many like Tweet Deck (I am using it), even there’s a add-on for mozilla called as twitter fox, you can go for Twhirl, if you are a mac user then you can go for Twitterrific. There are many more application you can find them on google.

Now what else you are looking for, Just go and create an account on twitter and if u are already on twitter then RT this post.