I Love The Web

Hello my Facebook Friends, do you Twitter ?

Mar 30, 2009 Uncategorized

Recently, I have seen many of you, my friends on Facebook, joining Twitter. This makes me happy because

1. no longer will i sound like a geek when every time i refer to Twitter, in other words you are joining my universe.
2. sharing of information will be more immediate and meaningful as i join your universe and discover even more things that you find interesting.
3. since most of you are already in Facebook, our Facebook experience will be enhanced as we find more compelling reasons to interact, beyond the  level of interaction offered by Facebook applications like ‘25 things you did not know about me’ , who cares ?.

Now that you are on Twitter, I would like to share with you, how I use Twitter and how it enhances my online experience. I think many people are dejected by the seemingly simple looking Twitter web page after they register. Unlike Google, there isn’t a lot to click on to ’see something happen’.  On the face of it, it is a serious downgrade from the experience you are used to on Facebook.

Friends are Followers

I think it is important to explain the idea behind Twitter in order to understand how to use it. The idea is to keep track or ‘follow’ where your friends have been. You will be ‘following’ a trail of messages and most importantly web links that your friend leaves behind for you to ‘follow’ like Hansel and Gretel you see ?
So to follow someone is much like subscribing to someones messages as you would with online newsletters. The difference being that the messages are more instant, like Skype and Googletalk. So to remember to follow.

Sharing is Giving

Twitter would not be as popular as it is without the support of people that use it. The reason it is so popular is that people are always sharing.  For me, this is the single most important idea behind Twitter. The discovery of new information that is shared by those I follow.  So, when you discover something interesting on the web, share it with your followers, chances are that they will find it interesting too.  This is important, the quality of the links you follow has an impact on how many people follow you.

Ok, with that sorted out of the way how do you get started.

1. Get a Twitter account by registering on Twitter.com, remember your twitter username and password when you have done registering. You will need it for the next step.
2. Download and install Adobe Air over here.
3. Finally Download and install  Tweetdeck over here.
4. It is now time to find and add followers, the following video should help explain how.

There is lots more I would like to tell you, but it goes way beyond the scope of introducing you to Twitter.  Honestly, it has taken me close to 5 days to get this post out.  I will post more about this depending on feedback I get.

You can find more and even better videos on twitter and tweetdeck by visiting youtube.

Good luck and happy tweeting.