 | Jennifer Holman is the Social Media Director for Chart Marketing, Inc. (CMI) a full-service advertising agency, marketing firm and publishing company. CMI operates and markets a varied assortment of business products and services, including publishing of The Q&A Times and several B2B and B2C publications throughout the country.. She also volunteers with Girl Scouts and Hope in the Valley Equine Rescue and Sanctuary. You may contact Jennifer by phone at (316) 721-9200, by e-mail at jenniferh@chartmarketing.com, or you may visit at www.facebook.com/TheQATimesJournal. |
Internet
2013-05-29 10:54:16
What is Twitter & Tweeting?
Q-My grandkids were talking about "tweeting" and I'm embarrassed to say I thought they were talking about birds. Your past articles on Facebook have really helped me with Facebook. I was wondering if you could help me get a better understanding of "tweeting"?
A-Don't feel embarrassed, for some reason when I hear "tweeting" I automatically think "I Tawt I taw a Puddy Tat!!" Twitter and or tweeting is an online social networking service and microblogging service that allows its users to send and read text-based messages of up to 140 characters, known as "tweets". The short format of the tweet is a defining characteristic of the service, allowing informal collaboration and quick information sharing that provides relief from rising email and IM fatigue.
Tweets are publicly visible by default, but senders can restrict message delivery to just their followers. Users can tweet via the Twitter website, compatible external applications (such as for smartphones), or by Short Message Service (SMS) available in certain countries. While the service is free, accessing it through SMS may incur phone service provider fees.
Users may subscribe to other users' tweets – this is known as following and subscribers are known as followers or tweeps. Users have the capability to block those who have followed them.
As a social network, Twitter revolves around the principle of followers. When you choose to follow another Twitter user, that user's tweets appear in reverse chronological order on your main Twitter page. If you follow 20 people, you'll see a mix of tweets scrolling down the page: breakfast-cereal updates, interesting new links, music recommendations.
Twitter has been used for a variety of purposes in many industries and scenarios. For example, it has been used to organize protests, sometimes referred to as "Twitter Revolutions". Another, more practical use for Twitter exists as an effective emergency communication system for breaking news. Twitter has also been adopted as a communication and learning tool in educational settings, mostly in colleges and universities.
