TWITTER 

The term "tweeting" has become a verb commonly used in the social media world. While "posting on Facebook" is still something we discuss doing regularly, it has come to be that "tweeting" is the most common social media maneuver there is. 

In the last year, Twitter has taken off immensely. The simplicity of it has helped a lot.  

It's simple, I promise. You can only use 140 characters - so no long, whiny statuses like Facebook. 

You 'follow' instead of 'friend.' People tend to socialize with people they know more on Facebook than on Twitter because Twitter isn't as strict, but also people don't post the same types of things on the two sites. It's more of a newsy-network, more information than personal postings about what someone had for dinner.

Twitter is great for journalists. It short and sweet. Post one sentence and a link to a story. Done. People are reading.

Then they can 're-tweet' your story, showing it to all of their followers, which in turns helps you gain readers.

One of the complaints I hear most about Twitter is that it's not personal. You can't directly talk to anyone on there - which is false.

You can tag someone in your tweet and it will show up on their page. You can also send a direct, private message.

The other big complaint is that it moves fast, which it does, it moves VERY fast. There is a constant flow of new information. You can't read everything posted if you follow a lot of people. The alternative is to create lists. I have a 'news' list created that I use at work. That way, instead of reading 800 peoples' posts, I'm only reading 45 peoples' posts when I need news only. 

The Hashtag (#) is fun. It creates a chat-room type of feel. You can Hashtag any word you want, the popular ones create a 'trend.' Yesterday when we found out that Victor Martinez would be out the whole season (Tiger's Baseball) there were trending hashtags that were #VMart and #Tigers and #ACL (he tore his ACL).

That way you could go see what everyone else is saying about that specific topic. It's fun and pretty entertaining depending on who you're following! Even if you're not following someone who uses the same hashtag, you can see what they post and then choose to follow them. I find a lot of new people to follow from trending hashtags.

Twitter has without a doubt taken off. "Friend me" (Facebook) is starting to fade and "follow me" has picked up.

In fact, on our press badges our Twitter handle (name) is listed.  

The site considers itself "a real-time information network that connects you to the latest information about what you find interesting." That is exactly how I see it as well. You can include photos and videos in your tweets. It's a great promotion tool. My sister's high school cheerleading coach uses Twitter to tell them what the schedule is. 

Last week, I called Facebook the King of Social Media, which true. However, I think Twitter is the Prince of Social Media and is completely ready to take over the 'King' title when his father dies. 

With that, follow me on Twitter! @EricaPerdue