06 November 2009

Understanding Twitter


Recently a colleague expressed confusion over the various methods of communicating on Twitter: tweets, replies, mentions, direct messages, et cetera.

Be confused no more.

Last month on TwiTip, a blog dedicated to the ins and outs of using Twitter, there were two posts that defined these various terms. For Part 1, click here, and for Part 2, click here.

My sense is that someone will need to post on this topic again in the next few months, as Twitter evolves and the number of savvy users increases. One key trend to watch is whether Twitter keeps its identity as a true representation of the wisdom of crowds or if it's overrun by more, uh... managed communication (e.g. spammers). A friend recently observed that his account has been plagued by much more of the latter.
UPDATED 8 NOVEMBER 2009: The Groundswell blog had an interesting case study on using Twitter as a research method. Click here to see it.

2 comments:

  1. Hi Steve,

    Thanks for linking to the piece- I'm glad you found it useful. Great suggestion to link part 1 to part 2. I've pinged the editor of TwiTip on Twitter and asked her to do that.

    Best,
    Robert

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  2. You're welcome, Robert! Follow us on the blog (see link at right) or on Twitter @SteveS1. Thanks for the useful article and for visiting Ad Majorem. -- Steve

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