An information network
Twitter is a real-time information network that connects you to the latest stories, ideas, opinions and news about what you find interesting. Simply find the accounts you find most compelling and follow the conversations.
At the heart of Twitter are small bursts of information called Tweets. Each Tweet is 140 characters long, but don’t let the small size fool you—you can discover a lot in a little space. You can see photos, videos and conversations directly in Tweets to get the whole story at a glance, and all in one place.
Why is it a useful tool?
Twitter has many uses for both personal and business use. It's a great way to keep in touch with your friends and quickly broadcast information about where you are and what you're up to. For example, "I'm downtown and aching for some sushi. Anyone like to join me?"
For business, Twitter can be used to broadcast your company's latest news and blog posts, interact with your customers, or to enable easy internal collaboration and group communication.
The advantage and disadvantages of using Twitter.
Twitter is Easy to Join
Advantage: It takes less than a minute to create an account with Twitter and start “tweeting.” The rules of the game are pretty straightforward. Registration is instant, and there is no need to follow up with a confirmation email.
Disadvantage: because Twitter is so easy to join, virtually everyone has a Twitter account, so their server tends to get overloaded easily. It’s not uncommon to have trouble connecting to Twitter’s site.
Twitter is Easy to Use
Advantage: Twitter limits its updates to 140 characters, so there’s no need (or temptation) to launch into long-winded prose or to over-explain your thought. There is only one main screen, so you never have to search around for what you’re looking for.
Disadvantage: Because Twitter is so simple, there is little sophistication to the presentation. Your profile is lean and mean. You can only have one photo attached to your profile at a time, and little detailed information about yourself. It’s not a great way for people to get to know you, unless you are very good at expressing yourself in 140 characters or less.
Twitter is a Democracy
Advantage: You can follow anyone on Twitter, and anyone can follow you. Although there is an option to block someone from following you, unlike with Facebook, you don’t have to actively accept someone’s friendship in order for them to see your updates. It’s easy to accumulate followers passively, and common for strangers to follow your feed.
Disadvantage: Without the advantage of selectively specifying your target audience, your message is in danger of being diluted among the masses. Chances are that most of the people who follow you on Twitter aren’t really paying attention to what you have to say.
Twitter Can Be Anonymous
Advantage: Unlike Facebook, which insists that you use your “real name” (while doing a debatable job monitoring whether or not you actually do so), Twitter allows you to choose any available user name you’d like—creative or otherwise. You can fill out a profile at your discretion, without the mandate to share personal information.
Disadvantage: You may not have any idea who is really following you.
Twitter Can Be Automated
Advantage: With the use of such third-party services as HootSuite, you can set your tweets to update automatically without having to log in on a regular basis. This allows you to keep an active Twitter presence with very little effort.
Disadvantage: You can’t count on the timely integrity of other tweeters’ information either. As far as you know, a robot wrote their tweet.
Twitter Offers Free Widgets and Apps
Advantage: With a flexible selection of free widgets and mini-applications available, it’s easy to embed a link to your Twitter feed (or even a subset of the feed itself) into your personal or company web site.
Disadvantage: Tweets are everywhere. It can be hard to weed through all the Twitter updates popping up around the web.
