Testing out Twitter

Another of the hot social networking sites that I've steadfastly avoided joining is the much-talked-about Twitter. "Twitter is more of an adult thing," Gordon Snyder, director of a national science foundation located at Springfield Technical Community College told PRIME. "It's another way to get communication in real time, a combination of text messaging and instant messaging and blogging." Messages, called tweets, are comprised of no more than 140 characters, and usually include information about what a person is doing at the time. Tweets can also be answers to questions. The most common platform for using Twitter is a cell phone with Internet access. Individuals can also Tweet from a laptop or desktop computer. Users communicate by posting tweets, or by following the tweets of someone they find interesting (such as Ashton Kutcher, Elizabeth Taylor or the "cat" that now famously tweets its daily experiences. Finding your 'Twitter' voice However, unlike Facebook, there can be a bit of a learning curve for new Twitter users. "With Twitter specifically it's somewhat universal. You sign up, get an account and say, 'now what do I do?'" Sweeney said. "You go away from it, come back and a lightbulb goes off." Sweeney said he didn't use his account for about three months after he initially signed up. "Then I ran into John Garvey, who suggested I follow him," Sweeney said. "then I started following more Western Massachusetts people, and from there it grew into more of an industry thing [for me]. ' "Now I'm connected to people in California and Australia and all over the world." he added. And he said he's also a genuine face-to-face side to many Twitter relationships. "The interesting thing about Twitter is that you connect with people, and then there are regular Tweet-ups and you can go meet the people who are regular users," Sweeney said. " You have these online relationships and they can carry over and become interpersonal." To sign up on Twitter: To sign up on Twitter: Log on to www.twitter.com and click on the Join- Get Started! button. This will take you to a page where you'll be asked to enter your full name, create a username and password, enter an email address and retype two security words. Clicking the "create my account" button at the bottom of the page will take you to a page where you will be offered a slate of other twitter users that the site thinks you might wish to follow. Be sure to click on the profile tab and complete your profile. On this page you can also decide if you want your tweets to be public, or available only to the people you accept as followers. The best way to understand how Twitter works, according to Snyder, is to just start using it. "Talk first and follow later," he said. "Consistently post content and you will understand how it works." He said it's best to start posting to a small group of friends, and then expand. "Some people keep their posts private. I think you want to keep your posts public, that way people will follow you," he said, Once you've established a presence on Twitter, Sweeney said there are downloadable applications such as TweetDeck that can keep you from being overwhelmed by posts and responses. "On Tweetdeck I'm following tweets because of key words [of interest to me], not people," he said. To follow David Sweeney on Twitter link to twitter @_daves. To follow Gordon Snyer or twitter link to www.Twitter.com/gsnyder.