What The Heck Is Twitter…And Why Should I Care?
April 2, 2008 | Author: Dave | Filed under: SEO and Marketing
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For those of you that haven’t heard of it yet, Twitter can be looked at as a lot of things…a short-form personal journal, an incredibly-short-form blog, or even a one-way instant messenger system.
It should also be looked at as a great way to increase your online business.
Twitter is a free service that allows you to post short messages (up to 140 characters) to your list of “followers”. These are people that have signed on to follow your Twittering because they’re interested in what you have to say, which can lead to several good things:
1. Increased readership for your blog.
2. More promotional opportunities for your website.
3. An easy way to update customers on your business.
4. The development of “personalization”…putting a “voice” to a faceless website.
For bloggers, Twitter can be a great way to stay connected with your readers. Encourage your readers to “follow” your Twitter feed. If you run a blog using Wordpress, install a widget to show your Tweets (as individual Twitter messages are called) on your sidebar. Or use one of the newest benefits of using Twitter…claim your Twitter feed as a blog at Technorati.com.
And yes, if you use the technical definition of a blog, then a Twitter feed qualifies, hence its addition to Technorati.
(To claim your Twitter feed as a blog, log in to Technorati, click on the “[Edit]” link next to your username, then click on “Blogs”.In the “Claim a blog” field at the bottom of that page, enter “http://www.twitter.com/yourusername”, without the quotation marks (and substituting your actual username for “yourusername”. Then take the URL they give you for verification and post it as a Tweet on your Twitter feed, and you’re set!)
However, Twitter can have benefits for more than just bloggers. If you run any type of online business, a Twitter account can give you some of the advantages of running a blog for your company without setting up a separate blog on your site. This allows you to connect with your customers, and keep them updated on new offers, specials and updates to your site.
There are also stand-alone Twitter utilities (such as Twhirl) that function in much the same way as an instant messenger program, allowing you to post a Tweet to your feed without logging into the Twitter website, and popping message windows up whenever someone posts a new Tweet to a feed that you’re following.
Twitter is easy to use, and can benefit your promotional efforts. But be warned of two things: like anything else worthwhile, it takes a little effort to get the most from it, and Tweeting can become addictive.
You’ve been warned. 
(If you want to dip a toe into Twitter, feel free to follow my feed at http://www.twitter.com/inhibitor, and I’ll be glad to follow you back!)
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[…] If you’re new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!Ever heard of Twitter? Twitter is a social media website that basically is like a giant IM. You follow people to subscribe to what they are saying and people who follow you get your updates. Dave wrote a great post on it here. […]