Twitter For my favorite Adult Ed Class! (information taken from Twitter for Dummies – no offense)

Twitter: What It’s About Twitter: Is a social network – a map of who you know and who you are interested in knowing You can access “tweets” or postings from your cell phone or computer Twitter has one central feature: users post entries of 140 characters or less through the site or your cell phone. Twitter is a mobile social network that combines elements of short messaging services (SMS or texting), instant- messaging communication tools, and blog publishing software Tweets are posted to the world at large where anyone can read them on the Twitter.com unless you choose a private account so that only those you choose can see your tweets.

How Twitter Differs from Facebook “Facebook is closed – Twitter is open Facebook is structured – twitter is scattered Facebook is people you’ve known, and might want to forget – Twitter is people you never knew, but might have wanted to meet. Because of this: Twitter will overtake Facebook and become the backbone of the real-time web” Brightidea.com CEO Matthew Greeley

Twitter: What It’s About Unlike blogging you are limited to 140 characters Like instant messaging you can communicate directly with people Unlike instant messaging, each message has its own unique resource locator (URL) so each message is actually a Web page. Additionally: Instant messaging lacks the social networking “following” features of Twitter and “Publish-subscribe” and one-to-many broadcasting features. People like it because – it’s a versatile, useful online communications tool – it’s like the office water cooler where any number of informal (or formal) conversations take place.

How Individuals Use Twitter To connect To forge connections and be a part of a community. To be heard. To record: Taking notes on life. People use it as conferences to explain what they have learned. To share: To share interesting articles or to tweet original thoughts. Sometimes sharing their inner monologue To stay in touch: You can send private or public notes to your friends and family. Helps you to get to know people over time.

How Organizations Use Twitter Barack Obama’s successful presidential campaign is the best example of an organization using Twitter to solicit donations, raise awareness, and call people to action. Campaign staff used the service to provide the candidates whereabouts on the trail and kick off new donations initiatives. It had hundreds of thousands of followers. Churches and smaller organizations use Twitter to provide additional services for members to connect, plan, and reach out beyond their community; to organize donation campaigns; share recipes, restaurant reviews, tech, spread the word about concerts, charitable efforts, and community efforts such as Amber Alerts, kidney donors, and other social good.Businesses that use Twitter: JetBlue, Starbucks, Dell, etc. Go to: http: guides/ guides/