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A tweet with Twitter

The world is tweeting about Twitter. If you have no idea what I am talking about you could become my follower on Twitter and I’ll tweet you all about it. If you’re completely lost now you will need to read this column to learn more.

Social networking

Twitter, like Facebook is a social networking service which users log on to share information via something called a tweet.

You’d be surprised at the sheer number of people who have Twitter accounts and are tweeting, just like a bird, about everything under the sun, hence the service’s name.

Twitter accounts are free to setup. Anyone can have a Twitter account and, when the mood takes them, share information by way of the Twitter website. Just about everyone, from the makers of your alarm clock, bed, breakfast cereal and morning coffee to your local daily newspaper, radio station and television has a Twitter account.

And if you work for a business that has practically  any interface with the public, chances are that has a Twitter account too  - although it probably doesn’t shout to staff about it.

Tweeting celebs

Many celebrities have their own Twitter accounts and use them to keep in touch with their fans. A rock star, for example, might Tweet to his followers to check out the website of a newspaper or magazine which is carrying their latest interview, or urge people to visit the iTunes website to download their latest album, or tell them that the details of his next concert are posted on his official website.

Stephen Fry, the British actor and comedian who appeared in the Blackadder and Jeeves and Wooster television series, for example, has become a bit of an authority on technology and shares his views in the latest gizmos and gadgets with the world via Twitter.

Twitter was also great following the Canterbury earthquake for keeping people up to date about a whole range of thing. Twitter is also very useful wherever large crowds are gathered, and there isn’t room for more.

Conference Twitter

It is quite common for conference participants to tweet contents of the keynote speech, for example, to their followers in real time. It helps those who are not there feel part of it.

Technology journalists, for example, use their Twitter accounts to keep their readers up to date during a product launch and sometimes correct each other as one tweets ahead of another.

Mobile tweets

Because tweets are short and sweet they can be banged out on a cellphone’s keypad, and sent as a text message, and be read by their audience in seconds. They can be sent by smart phones, like the iPhone or Windows Phone 7, and tablet computers, like the iPad 2 or HPs Touchpad, and desktop and laptop computers. They can also be viewed by the same.

The portability of the devices on which Tweets can be written, and the nature of the website and the service it delivers, means when it is used properly it can be a very powerful medium for delivering news, views and reviews.

If you want to stay up to date, via short and timely snippets from some of your favourite people, go to Twitter.com and click Sign Up.

To follow the Nerds on Twitter, search for “needanerdnz”.