Life Happens. Get a Twitter.
Some of the most important things in life occur in between Facebook status updates, blog posts and emails. This is the basis behind the concept of “Twitter.” Twitter is a micro-blogging that allows you to post “tweets” of 140 characters or less.
Developed in the Summer of 2006, Twitter has become an outlet for celebrities, Presidents, businesses and the everyday Joe that wants to share his life with the world. Taking the concept of “going viral”, Twitter has developed a few really cool functions into their site.
The Hashtag:
The first one is the hashtag (#). When a user places a hashtag in front of a word it turns the word into a link. If you click this link it will allow you to see all the posts in the world with that hashtag in it.
Trends:
Ever read Malcolm Gladwell’s book “The Tipping Point?” In Gladwell’s book he speaks about how trends start and spread. He takes the concept of a connector (a person that is well connected to different groups of people) and applies it to specific examples (i.e. Hushpuppy shoes trend in the 90s, crime cleanup in NYC). Twitter lets this concept go online in an easy to read fashion by placing a “Trends” section on the right hand side of your main page. These trends cover what people are posting about in larger cities, entire countries and the world.
As I am typing this the Baltimore Ravens played the NY Jets last night. Ray Lewis must have had a good game because he is trending right now on Twitter.
The Retweet:
Have you ever saw a Facebook status, loved it and just wanted to put it as your status? Twitter allows you to do that with the retweet function. It’s a really interesting function because everyone does it and its not considered creepy. In fact, I have found it flattering when people retweet me. If your tweet is retweeted enough times it will show up at the top of some of the hashtag searches.
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