When I first signed up for Twitter in March 2007, the social networking site was just beginning to find an audience. But most of the people joining then were habitual early-adopters, not average social network users.
Two years later, Twitter has finally found significant worldwide popularity, thanks in large part to attention from the mainstream media.
Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show” and most major news networks have run stories on the social network, and shows such as ESPN’s “Around the Horn” and ABC’s “Good Morning America” have incorporated the site into their broadcasts.
Even celebrities like John Mayer, Ashton Kutcher, Martha Stewart, Jimmy Fallon, and Shaquille O’Neal are Twittering these days.
But not everyone understands why the site is suddenly getting so popular.
Whenever I’ve tried to explain Twitter to someone who doesn’t get the site’s appeal, I’ve found that it is actually a very challenging task. After all, on the surface, Twitter can easily look like nothing more than a relative of Facebook’s status updates.
However, there is much more to the site.
To really understand Twitter, you have to dive in and use the service to its fullest.
Connect it to your mobile phone, use a desktop client, reply to other people’s tweets. Most importantly, don’t just follow people you already know. Go find and follow other people whose updates you find interesting, then interact with them. You’ll find yourself having some excellent conversations that way.
Because if you treat Twitter as just a status update service, you’ll be barely scratching the surface of its usefulness, and you’ll probably give up on it quickly.
Why miss out?
By Say hello to Heello, the new Twitter rival on the block | EvanRowlands.com August 11, 2011 - 8:52 pm
[...] since Twitter achieved mainstream popularity, we’ve watched plenty of competitors try to get into the micro-blogging game, but so far none [...]