What is Twitter and why would you bother?

Twitter is one of those things where is it very difficult to explain what it is. By the time you have said “it is a micro-blogging platform”, you have lost the person you are trying to explain it to. Any time I have been asked the question : “What is this Twitter thing anyway ?” I always send the them in the direction of this video:

After viewing this, things appear to be a little clearer (I hope). The next step is to immerse yourself in it by opening an account at Twitter :

Then, you need to start following some people that have a similar interests to youself. It is quite important to fill in as much of you profile as possible and this will enable those you follow to make a judgement on whether to follow you or not.

Why do I bother with Twitter?

I use twitter to Socialise, believe it or not. As I am a consultant, I work on my own quite a bit and I find Twitter great as I can enables me to carry around my friends, acquaintances, business contacts and hero’s with me. These are people with whom I can to have very interesting conversations with. This keeps me sane and well as in touch with what is happening.

Secondly, I use my Twitter community for knowledge and social capital as there is very much a “Sharing is Caring” attitude, where knowledge is shared openly and freely. You can ask various questions like “What plug-ins do you recommend on your WordPress blog?” or “who has an iPhone 3G and what do you like/dislike about this product?” and you will receive honest and open feedback (most of the time).

Thirdly, I connect with like minded people, and I have found trough twitter I have connected with individuals that I could not have run into with it.

Finally, my newest use for Twitter is announcing that I have a new blog post.

What you you use Twitter for ? Comments please !