Tweet Tweet

                In the world of social media Twitter is just a baby. Although it has been around for some time now it doesn’t come close to the age of MySpace and Facebook. Also, Twitter has just recently become popular. When I first started using Twitter I had a similar experience to when I first started using Facebook. It took me some time to get used to the ins and outs of the site. After some time now though Twitter seems to be growing up quickly and taking the place of Facebook. Some have argued that Twitter has become better that Facebook because information is quicker and you aren’t bombarded with lengthy posts due to the 140 character limit. So what makes Twitter?

                Twitter started just like any other social media site as a way to connect with others. Twitter has become more than just socializing though. Users use Twitter to promote their businesses and or products, they use Twitter to express passion about an organization or a cause, and finally we have recently seen Twitter being used to reach out to others for help in times of need. Sandy reliefs have been seen throughout Twitter these past few months. People and organizations can truly make a difference with social media sites such as Twitter. Businesses have also turned to Twitter to promote their products. Keeping up-to-date with social media is an important part in marketing and advertising these days. It is very rare that you see a business, corporate or not that doesn’t use some form of social media. In addition non-profit organizations can utilize social media sites like Twitter as free advertising or fundraising. And since the job market isn’t at the greatest point currently people can use these sites to self-promote themselves and be a step ahead of the crowd. Just like other social media sites Twitter has become much more than a way to connect with old friends.

                Twitter can also be used as a journalistic or political tool. In a journalistic sense you can access and display information within Twitter. Twitter consists of millions of users who tweet information every second. In addition from a journalistic point of view you can express short bursts of information or feelings to the public within seconds.  From a political sense Twitter can be a great tool. Just from the most recent presidential campaign you can see how much social media, especially Twitter was utilized. Both the democratic and republican candidates used Twitter as a political tool in their campaigns. In addition celebrities and other organizations used Twitter to support the candidate of their choice. Both sides used Twitter to urge people to vote. With the use of social media sites such as Twitter in a presidential election is truly unique and shows where our society is heading in the form of social media and technology.

                The five subjects or topics I decided to follow on Twitter were, MTV, People magazine, Bethenny Frankel, Women’s Health magazine, and Adweek. I thought these five pages were diverse and I was interested in following all of them. I decided to follow MTV because they are current and are up-to-date on pop culture. They are also giving back with organizing Hurricane Sandy relief efforts. People magazine is also a site that is up-to-date with current pop culture topics. They don’t only give gossip but they inform us about what people these days seem to be interested in. I know we all think these types of magazines are silly and sometimes untruthful but we all know that they are also guilty pleasures. When it comes down to it Hollywood and pop culture magazines like this one generate revenue. I also decided to follow Bethenny Frankel because she is a strong woman who runs her own successful business. She is very smart and makes products women want. I look up to her and would only dream of being as successful as she is one day. I also decided to follow Women’s Health Magazine. I am very interested in living a healthy lifestyle and find the articles in this magazine very helpful and interesting. Last I decided to follow Adweek on Twitter. This is the Twitter for the website that gives breaking news in advertising, media, and technology. Since this topic and site relates to what I want a career in it is very interesting to follow them on Twitter. Their tweets direct me to the website where I can read more about stories I’m interested in.  I found that all the people or groups I decided to follow were very different and tweeted in different ways. Some were used to promote themselves and others were used to give information. I did notice one thing that all of the Twitter pages had in common though. This was that they all were constantly using Twitter and tweeting multiple times throughout the day. When you are a well-known person or organization I guess it is important to be up-to-date with current situations and news.

                This experience using Twitter has been very different from blogging. The main difference I think has been that with blogging you have no word limit. You can share and express yourself and ideas with how many words you’d like. With Twitter you are limited to 140 characters. This can be good or bad depending on how you look at it. Another difference is that you can follow and tweet more people and it is much faster than blogging would be. This experience with Twitter has also been very different than other social media sites. Take Facebook for example. Once again you are not confined to 140 characters in a post of Facebook. Using Facebook however was very difficult and the site was very sketchy or questionable. I basically had no technical problems with Twitter and doing the project went much more smoothly than the Facebook one. I also recognized that with Twitter everything was much faster. I could Tweet and instantly get tweeted back or see other classmates updated tweets. Twitter to me is much more instantaneous and is the future of social media.