What is Twitter
It seems that everyone is on Twitter these days: athletes like Lance Armstrong and Shaquille O’Neil celebrities like Ashton Kutcher and Oprah Winfrey,
companies and stores like Jet Blue and The Gap, and don’t forget colleges! There are many colleges and universities starting to utilize Twitter which is great, but for the purposes of this guide we would like to encourage student affairs professional to learn about and take a dip in the Twitter pool.
What is Twitter
Describing Twitter can be difficult. Twitter is considered a microblog, which means it’s similar to blogging because you let people know what you’re thinking, but there is a limitation of only being able to use 140 characters at a time. Twitter is like the Facebook status message however, it is not limited to just friends. Twitter is like instant messaging, but all of your followers can view and reply to your message. Twitter lets you simply answer the question “What’s happening?”
You may be wondering “Why do I want to tell everyone what I am doing and why would people care?” And that’s a valid question. Some may not care, but others may have complete, devout interest; the value of Twitter is different for everyone. For some it is a great learning community, for others it is a help desk, and for some it is just a fun place to communicate. For example, there are several personal and professional topics I want to keep track of: higher education, cycling, leadership education, and technology. Twitter makes it possible for me to develop learning communities around each area of interest while connecting with others in an online community. Twitter is completely customizable to fit your interests! You can choose and customized your own communities by following people you like and can learn from, and unfollow those who don’t appeal to you, if you are so inclined.
