Wasn’t Facebook enough? Why Twitter?
With the skyrocketing recent interest in Twitter coupled with the plethora of third party services mushrooming all around, many people are wondering what all the hype is about. Well, what’s so great about Twitter?
Let’s see some of the great things Twitter can do, or help you do. Let’s start simple.
1. Broadcast your SMS text messages
Twitter lets you broadcast your mobile phone text messages (also known as SMS). You send a single SMS from your mobile phone to Twitter’s phone number, and it sends it to all your friends, for FREE. (Your friends have to be “following” you by selecting you through their Web-based Twitter accounts.)
2. Save Money
You don’t have to spend money to send mobile phone texts. Just log in to your Twitter account on the Internet, type in a text message and it will send it to all your friends for free. That will automatically mean big savings when you send one message and Twitter forwards it to a hundred people. Yup, you’re already beginning to think of the amazing business uses you can put it to.
3. Have a global conversation
Go beyond just texting. At this point you’re beginning to think of the wider implications of Twitter. At the recent Oscar awards, people were following the event through their Twitter accounts, tracking other people’s messages both through Twitter’s search and its hashtags(we’ll have more about hashtags later). Someone complained why a video wasn’t already on the Web. Somebody else saw the message and put up the video promptly.
4. Make things happen
Yes, for real. In the Asian nation of Pakistan, people were leading a movement for democracy for the restoration of the country’s top Judge. The Long March, as the movement was called, was subjected to a communications and media blackout throughuot the country. People started tweeting about the latest developments, and found a way to continue the Long March to the capital of Islamabad.
5. Make a live blog
Well, a micro-blog actually. Twitter limits your messages to 140 characters. This forces to squeeze maximum meaning in those tiny bursts of information. That’s how it differs from a regular (or “macro”) blog. Best of all, the SMS messages you send from your phone automatically get added to your microblog on the Twitter site.
We’ll be posting more about the great things you can do with Twitter, so keep reading!
