Twitter Trends

By Gadjo Cardenas Sevilla The micro-blogging and social networking phenomenon that is Twitter has picked up a lot of steam globally. Trending on Twitter has become an instant way to feel the pulse and undercurrent of events and issues. Like other social networking services, you build your list of people you would like to follow and likewise, anyone who may be interested in what you might have to share, will ask to follow you. When you “Tweet” you can share information about anything provided you limit the length of your messages to 140 characters. You can link to articles, photos and more importantly you can “Retweet” postings from other people. Because weblinks are sometimes long and you don’t want them to take up you 140 characters you can use services like TinyURL.com that shortens long URLs into shorter links ideal for linking on twitter posts. For photos there is Twitpic (http://www.twitpic.com/) allows you to share photos on Twitter. Twitter is useful More than announcing to the world what you had for lunch or what song is playing on the radio, Twitter can be really useful. Want to get feedback on a product or service, search the Tweets. Want to know which patio is worth checking out, simply ask- there' a good chance someone will Tweet you back. A lot of companies, like Starbucks, CNN the New York Times use it to interact directly with their customers and receive instant feedback as well as run promotions. Celebrities and high profile personalities like Shaquille O’Neal, Lance Armstrong, John Mayer and many others use Twitter to keep in touch with their fans as well as get feedback. The recent NBA trades, negotiations and rumours were lighting up the Twittervese and guess what, the players themselves were Twittering away and interacting with the fans. One thing about Twitter is that it so levels the playing field, it cuts out the middleman and enables real interaction between the big names and their following. To see who is on Twitter and what their rankings are you can got to wefollow.com, the self-proclaimed User Powered Twitter Directory breaks down twitterers based on genre and also offers up the most discussed topics posted on Twitter by tags. Trends and Locations Twitter has certain advantages when you search Tweets for a specific topic. On the Twitter homepage, the hottest trends are updated so you can click on them and bring up what people are saying or thinking about a specific subject. Mobile users who access Twitter on the smartphones have the advantage of using their phone’s GSM location or GPS function to gather Tweets from your vicinity. This is helpful if you are attending an event, say a concert or a bazaar you can actually “listen-in” in on what people in the area have to say. Similarly, while travelling, you can post questions like, “what’s the best Pizza in the city,” and you are likely going to get a few responses. Clients Galore Twitter on the go really makes sense and there are some good applications for the iPhone, such as Tweetie, Twinkle and Twitterific. You can also get full-featured Twitter applications for other smartphones such as BlackBerry, Symbian, Windows Mobile and for those who use standard celfones, it is possible to Tweet via SMS. For the desktop, a number of outstanding Twitter clients are available for free. Sure, you can just use the web-based pages on Twitter.com but to really extend the functionality of the service. Tweetdeck Beta and popular favorite Twhirl both make use of Adobe Air technology and add some profound levels of usability to the Twitter interface. Tweetdeck works on Macs, PCs and Linux machines while Twhirl is strictly for XP, Vista and OS X. We’ve used both and prefer the way Twhirl works in the background and the fact that it can handle multiple Twitter accounts at the same time. Other clients worth checking out are Tweetie (Mac and iPhone), Snitter for Mac and PC and Spaz for Mac, Windows and Linux. Twitter may not be for everyone, I mean with email and instant messaging and text messages most of us already have a lot on our plates. Add your Facebook habit and there's little time for anything else. The beauty of social networking is that you, the user, can control it. You decide how to effectively use the tools to improve your communications and enhance your business and social life.

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