techInfos / Twitter & socialSystems

Hi there, this is Lars from rollTogether. As some of you may know, I keep the techThings and #photography for #rollTogether. I'm am very excited about the changes the communication takes these time. The web grows as fast as sh*t and the services that *should* be used pop out of nothing and disapear the same way.

Let me tell you something about twitter and your use for this service.

Twitter started 2006 as a microblogging platform.

 

Microblogging means just: Small text entrys in the order they were made. Same as a usual blogs (Web Logs)... larger entrys in chronologic order. Most people recognize twitter as a "I post every pointless fart"-Application... and yes, this it is, cause a lot of people still does not know what this service was made for.

When I signed up for my twitter account (early 2007), I felt the same about twitter. My phone was an "old" HTC without any data plan. So I could not find the sense for me. Times changes. Data plans are getting cheaper and cheaper and twitter clients (software for a easy connection to twitter) for nearly every device are available for free.

Twitter is also free and free + free = free. Twitter sets the standard. Twitter IS the free social short message service of tomorrow, BUT you have to know what you are facing.

If you just follow everybodys "tweets", your "timeline" will get flooded within minutes by to much information. So select your tweeter careful and keep them organized (in lists). The most important functions are @ D # and RT

"@username": directs your log entry to the specific person AND keeps the tweet on the public timeline.
"D username": is a direct message. This message will NOT be shown on any public timeline and is compareable to a common sms.
"#tag": Words marked mit the hash (#) pushs your message into a direction/category.
"RT username": is special case and re-tweets message of that user to your followers. Spread the word!

I'll give you a simple example: "@echterhoff Looking forward to meet you at the #rolltogether 13. It is gonna be a great #event. Are you going to take #photos there? #skate"

This will trigger a public message to me. The categories are rolltogether, event, photos and skate. Whenever now somebody searches for rolltogether photos, this tweet may show up in the search results and will show the path to more related information, as the person who was looking for these keywords will enter the public conversation at this tweet. Those keywords are also important to give themes a "weight". The more people tag #skate oder #blade oder #inlineskating or whatever, the more attention it gains from other media.

So twitter is NOT made to tell your life story through your iPhone.
Twitter is NOT made to tell the world how terrible your farts smell after a junkfood orgy.
Twitter is made for short informations in light weight applications and devices.

Use it in your phone (iPhone, Windows Mobile, Symbian, Android, Palm, Blackberry, etc...), in your favorite chat-client (miranda, trillian, qip, pigin, etc...) as an browser extension in Firefox, Opera or Google Chrome... through the web twitter.com and snap it to your socialnetworking profiles in myspace, facebook, meinvz, studivz, youtube, vimeo and countless other web 2.0 projects.

IT IS MORE EASY THAN these few words can describe! Be creative, start google and look for: twitter myspace twitter facebook twitter chrome twitter windowsmobile twitter iphone ...and so on. And now go, sign up for a crisp twitter name and start following us. I promise, we neither will flood you nor send you sh*t you dont care about. Only compact fresh and useful rolltogether information!!!

If you still have questions... send me an email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it www.twitter.com/rolltogether