Many of you that know me, know that I am moderately addicted to Twitter; an addiction many of you also profess not to understand as you don’t “get” Twitter*.
So what is Twitter and why do I like it?
- Twitter is a micro-blogging tool – Tweets are limited to 140 characters
- It’s a communication method somewhere between IM and email.
- It’s a social network – taking the only good part of Facebook “David is” and doing away with the rubbish.
I like Twitter because for me it’s an ambient social network and source of news and opinion; it’s always there (well maybe no always given it’s current uptime travails) but completely unobtrusive. I think a key difference is that for most users you can just follow them without having to be accepted – follow anybody and see what they are saying and to who.
I also like the multitude of ways in which I can update and follow Twitter; from Hahlo (the best webapp I’ve seen) and MobileTwitter (mostly for updating Twitpic) on my iPhone to Twitterrific on my Macs – although I still prefer the good old fashioned website.
If you haven’t tried Twitter try it now. and if you’ve tried it before try it again. The secret is to start following interesting people, you can follow me here @davidhughes and to then share with your friends.
Earlier today I saw a Tweet from @paulfabretti to his Tweet Cloud on his blog Blending The Mix. So thought I better get my own Tweet Cloud, and here it is:
I’m amused that one of my most Tweeted words is actually Twitter, I’m not surprised that I’ve talked about the iPhone so much (I does love my iPhone I does) and rather pleased that I have used the word love so often, although I suspect it is a things for things and concepts rather than people.
So get on Twitter now, start following me and “join the conversation”.
* Dear friends from the real world I’d love to see you on Twitter and well as my friends from the interwebs.