What’s so HOT about Twitter?

Oh Twitter how I love thee! People might not be saying this out loud but you know they are thinking it when you visit their blogs or even log into your own Twitter account.  With WordPress plug-ins like “TwitThis” and the various twitter tools, it's hard to ignore the fact that people everywhere have caught on to the Twitter craze — and they love it.

Ok, so what's all the fuss about and why is this social networking tool such a hot item? 

For starters, Twitter poses the question right on its front page "What are you doing?"  This is gets people interested.  So much so that it even drew the attention of ABC, CNN and USA today.  Needless to say, Twitter has become the hottest tool around for making friends and connections but it's not just a place for internet or computer geeks …it's truly a whole lot more than that!

Twitter is a way for you to find and exchange a few words with like-minded individuals.  Whether it's a stay at home mom who needs some outside interaction, a home worker who misses the water cooler chat or the internet business owner who wants to reach more of their target market, Twitter fills that need.  It's a simple, yet effective way to connect with others where you might not otherwise have a chance to.

Twitter is super simple to use and creating an account takes only a user name and password. Once you do that it's easy to navigate and customize your profile and begin following other 'Tweeps' as Twitter users call one another.

To follow what another person is doing, just visit their twitter page and click the 'follow' button.  You've now been added as a follower and when you login to your account you’ll see their messages on your screen. 

You can even use Twitter when you don't have access to a computer or you're not at home.  Inside your Twitter account you can set it up so you receive twitter messages to your cell phone or instant messager programs.  Just browse to your settings and choose the devices tab and you're good to go.  This is ideal if you travel frequently or are out running around and come across something interesting you'd like to share with your followers.  

Case in point, the other day I hit a huge traffic jam on the way to lunch with some friends, it not only meant I'd be late for lunch I was also late picking up a friend on the way.  I sent a quick tweet and everyone knew what what happending …like killing two tweets with one stone .

There are also several Twitter applications that make it easy to use for just about anyone.  I'm talking about applications like Twitter fox, Twhirl, TweetDeck and TweetMyBlog.  Twitter Fox and Twhirl give users the instant messaging look and feel. Twitter Fox is an extension for the Firefox browser and Twhirl, my favorite,  is a desktop application.

TweetMyBlog is a way to automatically post updates from a user’s blog to Twitter. All you need for this is a Twitter account and an RSS feed from your blog. It will automatically post a tweet using your account when your blog is updated.  Cool huh?

Tweet Deck is another desktop application that allows for more organization of updates. Instead of posting all a users tweets one right after another, it allows you to organize tweets into separate columns within the application, so if you have both customers and friends on Twitter this is a great feature. 

Did I say I love Twitter?

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Related posts:

1. Setting Up Your Twitter Feed
2. Using Twitter Effectively

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