What's all the fuss about twitter?

Ever wondered what all the fuss is about Twitter?  Let's have a look at why other people use it and what you could use it for.
But first of all, let's have a look at what it is.

What is Twitter?

Primarily, twitter is a microblogging site. This means it's a place to publicly post 'updates' (what you are doing, what you've done, what you want to do, information you want to share with others) that are 140 characters long or less.  A blog is where you write about things that interest you, and a microblog is where you do the same thing, just in short (140 character or less) bursts.  It's very similar to facebook status updates, but the difference is that you are tweeting (sharing those updates) with people you don't necessarily know.
On twitter, you have followers - people who subscribe to your updates. Every time you post something (or tweet), that tweet will appear on the home page of your followers.
You can also follow other people. And when you do that, all of their tweets will appear on your home page.

Getting Started on Twitter

First of all, go to twitter.com and sign up for an account. It's free, and signup is easy. Choose a name that you like because it's how you are identified in the twitter world.
Now, find some people to follow.  You might want to follow real-life friends, or organisations that interest you, or celebrities or news channels.  Most people follow a mix of all of these.   To 'follow' somebody, find their twitter page and at the top, click on the Follow button .  From then onwards, anything they tweet will appear on your home page.  However, this doesn't mean they will get your updates - they will only receive your updates if they then choose to follow you.
Now, Get Tweeting!  Post your tweets. How you choose to use twitter is entirely up to you - you can update several times every hour, sharing what you are doing, interesting links or images, and news items, or you can tweet only a couple of times a week.  The only guidance I offer is that you keep it respectful and polite. You won't gain any followers by being rude or offensive.

Who to Follow?

When deciding who you want to follow on Twitter, have a think about why you are using twitter.  There are many different reasons, and you will probably find that these change over time, but these are some that might apply to you

• use it on a personal level to share what you’re doing with real life friends and family
• build up your professional profile or your website/blog audience
• keep up to date with breaking news from a variety of sources - have the news 'fed' to you
• get personal or professional updates from the big names, celebrities or important figures
• keep abreast of latest news from organisations you are interested in

So, what kind of people can you follow? Here are some examples of tweeters that I have on my follow list:
News and Politics:

• www.twitter.com/guardian - The Guardian
• www.twitter.com/telegraphpics - Photo Galleries and latest news pictures from The Daily Telegraph
• www.twitter.com/bbcbreaking - breaking news alerts from the BBC
• www.twitter.com/ClarenceHouse - news from clarence house - all the info about the royal wedding plans.

Local Issues

• www.twitter.com/GMPolice - updates and news from Greater Manchester Police.  Local reported crimes, appeals for help, and links to items on their blogs for local people.
• My local coffee shop is on Twitter, there's a twitter feed for my local town residents, and even some local restaurants and bars are on there - I often hear about special deals from them through twitter, but also breaking local news.

Things and people that interest me:

• www.twitter.com/britastro - The British Astronomical Association - find out what's happening in our skies.
• www.twitter.com/manairport - news, offers, competitions and travel info from Manchester Airport
• www.twitter.com/suziperry - Suzi Perry from the Gadget Show
• www.twitter.com/gcluley - Graham Cluley from Sophos - announces news about Internet/Computer security issues, viruses, and software vulnerabilities
• www.twitter.com/OfficialSCFC - News from Stoke City Football Club
• www.twitter.com/HeadwayUK - News from Headway, the Brain Injury Association charity.
• www.twitter.com/PhotoRadar - The digital photograph blog & website. Great links to competitions for photographers.

Then, there are twitter feeds for most online shops, most sports clubs, most professional sports people, actors and TV stars (I love following the Tour de France riders when the tour is on in July, and hearing the different perspectives on each day's racing).
The great thing is that if you choose to follow somebody's twitter feed, but then decide it's not for you, you can just as easily unfollow them.  It's entirely up to you.

Twitter code and twitter-speak

So, there will be some small rules or guides you'll need to know about, here are a few clues

Using the @ sign

To send a public tweet to another twitter user, or to alert them of something that you are tweeting about them, use the @ sign, for example
>>> @ManAirport what time does the competition close?
But remember - EVERYBODY can still see this, but just ManAirport will be able to pick out this message in their stream much easier because it mentions them specifically.
or >>> Lovely evening @The_Lowry with @fred and @jim
will alert The_Lowry, Fred and Jim that I tweeted about them.

Sending a Private "Direct" Message to someone

You can send a private message, aka a Direct Message, to anybody on twitter, by using the characters DM before their name. This message will go to that person, but will not be visible on your public feed or theirs.
DM @The_Lowry please can you let me know where to collect the tickets from?

Retweeting

If somebody has tweeted something and you'd like to share it, the best way is to ReTweet their message.
You can either click on their message and select Retweet or you can copy their message, then start your own message with RT <@their_twitter_name> <message text>

Hashtags #WhatAreThey ?

Hashtags are a means of searching for, or linking, all tweets on a particular subject. If everybody who is tweeting about the Tour De France includes the hashtag (word!) #tourdefrance within their tweet, then anybody else on twitter can search for #tourdefrance and the search results will display all tweets, from everyone, containing that hashtag.
so, for example, you might tweet

"Really enjoying watching the #tourdefrance on @itvcycling"

And if you want to search for all tweets on a particular theme, you could search for a keyword with a # infront of it, and see what comes up.
You don't have to use them, but they help other people to find your tweets on a particular subject, by 'tagging' your tweets.

So, i think that covers the basics for you. Now, get on there and start tweeting!