Do you Tweet?

RIVER BENDER - August,  2010

Everybody is tweeting on Twitter nowadays. Nobody I know tweets but there are folks you'd never expect to be tweeting like Larry King, Lance Armstrong, politicians, businesses and even President Obama. What in the world are they taking about? Are we missing out on something? What is Twitter and tweeting? Hey, I confess - I don't tweet so I can't give you first hand knowledge of tweeting like someone who is an addict. I'm not even on Facebook, another popular craze, but I know how to create a blog and a webpage so I'm not interested in tweeting, but I'll try to explain what's going on.

Twitter is a website (http://twitter.com/) that began in 2006 and gained popularity worldwide. They say it has over 60 million accounts but CNN reported that 73% have tweeted less than 10 times. So it's sort of like RBmail with over 500 members, where most members rarely send mail to the list. Twitter is a free "micro-blogging tool" that allows one to post short blogging messages in 140 characters or less on their computer or mobile device. The short messages are called tweets and often used in campaigning, education, emergencies, protest and politics, legal proceedings, and public relations. Businesses use Twitter to promote products and services and it can provide you a way to share stories. Tweets are broadcast to other Twitter users that follow you and are shown on your profile list. It's a social network thing.

Subscribing to get tweets from other twitterers is easy (easier than getting them to subscribe to yours). If you're going to tweet, before subscribing at http://twitter.com/, I suggest you google everything you can about it because there's a new language involved like hashtag, dweet, mistreet, twaffic and you'll need to know how to get tweets by using aids such as TwitterLocal to show tweets from people in whatever area you specify or Twitter Grader that allows you to put in your city and see the top tweeters. Follow a few that sound interesting. Tweet them (type @ then their username, no spaces. Type your message, then hit send). Start conversations. Most people usually follow back. It can get complicated.

What really puzzles me is how Twitter is making money. Or are they? According to click experts Twitter is the 84th most popular site on the Internet so one would think it might be great for advertising revenue. The problem is that tweets are only 140 characters or less and, therefore, not conducive to advertising. Nonetheless, venture capital companies are spending millions on Twitter even during the current economic downturn. Best guess is they may be banking on an eventual acquisition by a web giant. Like Google maybe? Happy tweeting - but not for me.