Twitter has created quite a buzz for itself so far this year—managing to combine the ease of Instant Messaging and SMS with the reach and scope of social networking services. So what's all the buzz about? Essentially, Twitter gives you the chance to publish your thoughts on the fly or tune into the thoughts and information streams of other users from around the world. The key to the success of Twitter is brevity —each message that you write can only be a maximum of 140 characters long. This has seen the rise of what has been called 'micro-blogging' or 'micro-publishing,' with some users sending out tens or hundreds of messages a day to their friends, followers and the public. Rather than a replacement for blogs as a publishing medium, Twitter offers an addition to the options available to you. While blog posts tend to be longer in form, Twitter posts are ideal for making single points or sharing a single piece of information, like a link, instantaneously. Think of the difference between an email and an SMS message, and you are in the right ballpark. Messages can be accessed through the Twitter website —via personal or public pages —or through your favorite Instant Messenging tool or mobile phone. With the ability to follow the stream of messages created by any number of friends, Twitter allows you the chance to have an always-on stream of information wherever you go. In this beginner's guide to Twitter I have taken a look at the following questions: Here are the details: ** What exactly is Twitter? ** The basics ''Twitter is for staying in touch and keeping up with friends no matter where you are or what you’re doing. For some friends you might want instant mobile updates—for others, you can just check the web. Invite your friends to Twitter and decide how connected you want you to be.'' As the Twitter team make clear in their description, Twitter is basically a way of sending out messages to groups of friends, or even to the general public, from a website, mobile phone or Instant Messaging client. Every time you post a new message, which must be less than 140 characters long, that message is relayed to all of the people in your friends list, published to your personal Twitter home page, and added to the public home page unless you tell it otherwise. Friends with Twitter activated on their mobile phones will receive your message, and can reply to it, via SMS. Those who have activated their Instant Messaging account will receive the message through their IM client. Everyone else can follow your updates from your personal Twitter page, which also features its own RSS feed. Your online presence You are given some degree of control over how your personal page at the Twitter website will look, and, should you wish to, it is possible to change your This last image is displayed in thumbnail form next to your message, every time you post, and therefore serves as a kind of avatar. Get started Once you have made any customization tweaks to your Twitter page and profile, added SMS mobile phone and/or Instant Messaging support and invited any friends you would like to join you on Twitter, you are ready to get started. ** What do I need to use Twitter? ** There are four different ways to access your Twitter account and create or receive messages. They are: As all mobile phones have SMS capabilities, there are no limitations on which phone you can use. As such, Twitter is very accessible, and profoundly mobile. By being able to access it in a variety of ways, you can truly manage which information you receive and at what point. By sending a simple message to Twitter from your phone or IM client you can choose to turn your stream of messages on or off at any given time, which could prove very useful when you are too busy to read or respond to them, or if you just want to take a break from the incoming flow of status updates. The following commands are available: ** How are people using Twitter? ** Twitter goes beyond the cliché of people writing up what they had for breakfast, or that they just changed channels on their TV set. While it is possible to use Twitter in any way you see fit, including as a way to detail the minutiae of your existence, there are other more useful functions it is being used to fulfill. These include: For those willing to get a little inventive, then, Twitter offers a great platform for reaching thousands of people with bite-sized chunks of information. Conversely, it also offers a very simple and effective way of keeping track of not just your friends whereabouts, but also the latest breaking news, shopping deals, and even job opportunities and events. Go to Part 2 of Twitter: A Beginner's Guide
Originally written by Michael Pick for Master New Media and originally published as: "Mobile And Instant Messaging Meets Social Networking: Twitter - A Beginner's Guide" 
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.
Documents
| Twitter: A Beginner's Guide, Part 1 |
Get acquainted with Twitter, a social networking tool that can be used on a computer or on a mobile device.
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What exactly is Twitter? —a full review of what Twitter is and does
What do I need to use Twitter? —The different ways that you can use Twitter, and the technologies required
How are people using Twitter? —Twitter is being used in a number of ways to a variety of effects
Why do people love Twitter? —What the blogosphere and press have to say about Twitter when they are singing its praises
Why do people hate Twitter? —What the blogosphere and press have to say about Twitter when they are less than impressed
What tools are there to extend Twitter? —While the strength of Twitter lies in its simplicity, that hasn't stopped a micro-industry forming around it. I take a look at some of the tools and services available
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