Thing 27: What is Twitter?

"Twouble with Twitter" sous-titré
Uploaded by LePostfr

This video is one of my favorite things I have come across in researching this topic. At the beginning, upon being asked what Twitter is, the twitterer has a hard time describing exactly what it is. This is the very same problem I have encountered since using Twitter myself. I find the easiest way to explain it is as a constant flow of 'facebook-status' like updates. This usually suffices since most people I know are big facebook users. For me, twitter is much more appealing than facebook.

I'm sure one of the main reasons I use twitter so often is because of my iphone. Since I have an internet connection on my phone, it is easy to use the Twitterific application to constantly stay updated on the twitter feeds I follow as well as to post my own at any moment. I also use the Twitterfox browser application on my Firefox browser. Twitterfox has a really nice, sleek interface and you can set it for how often you want to be updated about new tweets. I set mine to every 15 minutes. Between the two, I rarely go more than an hour or so whitout checking Twitter.

One thing I have been really excited to learn about through doing this thing is hashtags (#). I had seen them a lot in the feeds I follow but was never sure what they meant. Now that I know they are a way to tag and follow tweets on a certain topic, I try to use them regularly. It's interesting to go to the hashtags site and see what is popular. When the series finale of Battlestar Galactica was airing, I went to the hashtags site because I knew there had to be a lot of tweeting going on about the show. I was correct - it was the most popular tag at the time and I enjoyed seeing what other viewers had to say about the ending of one of the greatest shows on television. In thinking about the uses of such a feature I was stilted. In what situation could this actually be helpful, instead of just…..well, interesting? I ran across this and thought that some of the ideas within were very valid and made hashtags really worth while (like tagging when tweeting from a conference). In fact, I have been following people who were tweeting from the SXSW (South by Southwest) Festival in Texas last month and realized that hashtags are the best way for me to see what everyone who tweets from festivals have to say (as long as they remember to tag the tweets). This is something I will definitely keep an eye on in the future.

It's been interesting to see how popular Twitter is becoming. I regularly hear it referred to on television and in newspapers. Although I'm not a huge fan of him, I've been following Jimmy Fallon's twitter feed (@jimmyfallon) and I love how he has integrated the technology into his new late night talk show. For example, one day he asked people to send in photographs of their interesting tattoos to him via twitter. Later, he had a tattoo artist as a guest on his show and he showed some of the best tattoos to her which he had received only hours earlier. I thought this was such a great way to get the audience involved in the show! It is also good for him to show he is a part of a younger generation and taking strides to do things in an innovative way to make his late night show his own, instead of just a copy of the others which have come before.

I think Twitter can be valuable professionally as well as personally. Besides the networking which can be done via Twitter, it is also a great way to keep ones finger on the pulse of what's going in the world. Especially in a library environment where one needs to constantly be up to date on the latest ways to access information, keeping up with Twitter can be an asset. By following tweets of other library professionals (and libraries themselves), one can find out what's going on at conferences, what web 2.0 programs others are using or simply what books/movies/music everyone is checking out.

I really could go on and on....Twitter is just so much fun! Here are some of the interesting articles/programs I stumbled across while researching this thing:

Fun things to do with twitter

Find twitter users in your area

Tweet Grid - real time updates by subject