Vox Daily

Twitter Me This, Batman

Twitter matters quite a bit to many people nowadays and is quickly becoming the standard way for people who love to network to stay abreast of up-to-the-minute news in their community or with their friends.

What Does Twitter Do?

Twitter gives you the ability to sign up and provide a flow of personal updates while also allowing you to "follow" or subscribe to the Twitter update feeds of your family, friends, colleagues or your favorite movers and shakers.

What is Twittering?

Twittering is using Twitter to let others know what you are doing by updating your Twitter status. This could be information about what you are doing, your plans for the day, where you are, what you've accomplished, how you're feeling, and so on.

Who's on Twitter?

All kinds of people are Twittering. In our industry, there are a couple dozen that I've discovered and I'm sure there are more. At Voices.com, we have three company Twitter accounts. Feel free to "follow" our feeds to keep up with what we're doing at any given moment:

Voices.com on Twitter
David Ciccarelli on Twitter
Stephanie Ciccarelli on Twitter

The Culture of Twitter

From being on there for about 24 hours, I can tell you that it's a friendly place and is full of people who are technically minded and have other presences in social networking circles. It's very much a marketing tool for those who want to use it that way. I decided to follow one of my buddies, Peter O'Connell, and the first message I read from him was "@stephciccarelli, what took you so long?" It's a happy place and from Peter's comment, I think it's the more the merrier ;)

Tips for Using Twitter

1. Use a URL shortening service (i.e. tinyurl.com) when including links in your updates
2. Check your "reply" tab (you won't see messages from people you are not following in your regular stream)
3. Don't be afraid to speak up!

The tips above are from Erica at Voices.com. Find more tips courtesy of Grammar Girl's Unofficial Twitter Style Guide. There's even a Twitter Fan Wiki for the overly adventurous.

Should You Be Twittering?

Twittering is easy but just because it's simple doesn't mean that it's everyone's cup of tea.

If you are feeling overwhelmed by social media and social networking, Twitter may become one more thing on your to-do list or the straw that breaks the camel's back. It can also become addicting if you are either constantly updating your status or are reading up on what others are doing instead of actually doing anything yourself.

I was thinking that for all the updating of statuses that goes on, it might be better to update your status once you've finished a task so that you don't fall into a pattern of updating prematurely and then feeling crappy if you didn't complete what you had set out to do. It also gives you a sense of accomplishment and closure.

Remember though that Twitter updates can be searchable on the Internet and also published in the public timeline. If you want to limit access to your updates you'll need to check the box to "protect your updates" Twitter feed.

Twitter at Will!

Did this article interest you or convince you to get a Twitter account?

If so, learn more and signup at Twitter.

Comments on Twitter are welcome! Comment below.

Best wishes,

Stephanie