Before I jump into the semantics of why someone would tweet, let’s set up some ground rules.
Twitter is a microblogging Web site, or a site that allows people to post bite sized pieces of text when compared to a normal blog.
Twitter only has two formal rules: (1) You tweet (not Twitter) messages that must be 140 characters or less; (2) You need a Twitter name to post.
The founders of Twitter, Jack Dorsey, Evan Williams, and Biz Stone, wanted to create a really simple status updating system that could be updated through text messages. Beyond that, the service is generally left open for user interpretation. The site has gone from updating friends about a delicious hoagie, to reporting on current events instantaneously (Michael Jackson’s death), allowing civil rights protestors the ability to communicate quickly and safely (Iranian elections), making a game out of going places (foursquare) and whatever else users can come up with.
So the question still remains, “Why would you tweet?”
Twitter is what you make of it. If you find — and are active in — a community using Twitter, then that’s where the real fun and usefulness come in. In 2009, 60 percent of Twitter users quit within the first month, according to Mashable.com.
Twitter users leaving and quitting can be attributed to a multitude of reasons from lack of understanding, to not seeing the value in the site, or, as what I view most is important, not having a community to interact with. So if you are going to try out Twitter, try to find multiple places where you can connect and meet users.
Twitter, like Facebook and other social networks, allows people to form communities and share information with one another. Unlike Facebook, Twitter can be boiled down to text and hyperlinks that can then be brute-forced into sharing pictures, local trends and all other types of content. At its core, Twitter is only 140 characters but through a community of dedicated users a new functionality was created.
Twitter is now used to provide user commentary for shows like ESPN and CNN, while trending topics and tweets are referred to in news stories. The world is shifting toward real time data, as demonstrated by Google and Bing who catalog tweets in searches. So give Twitter a chance and see how you can add interaction to the discourse that’s happening right now.
To read more about Twitter and find some useful Twitter jargon, check out Colin’s blog post at statepress.com/section/blogs. E-mail Colin your blog post ideas at collin.j.mcgann@asu.edu
