Do you tweet?
That’s the verb used to describe the action of communicating on Twitter, usually described as a “micro-blogging” service.
A what?
Let’s make this real simple. A short intro to Twitter, currently used by 8% of Americans, and rising.
I’m going to assume you know what email is.
So imagine your emails were limited to 140 characters and that instead of sending an email to one or more specific people, they were broadcast to the universe.
People can then find your tweets in one of several ways:
1. People who have elected to “Follow” you, will automatically see your tweets when they are logged into Twitter. Recent tweets from everyone you are following are displayed in chronological order, most recent at the top.
2. People will “re-tweet” tweets they like or want to spread. So if someone you are following re-tweets a tweet, you’ll see it too. Re-tweeting is as easy as pushing a button, so that makes Twitter a great tool for virality.
3. You can search for tweets from or referring to a particular Tweeter, by name (identified with a “@” symbol, like @billgates).
4. You can search for tweets by subject if the tweets use “hashtags” which start with a “#” (hash mark). So tweets often use hashtags to “tag” a tweet as to what it is about.
Got it?
Not for everyone. But useful (or fun) for many.