When senators and representatives are tweeting while the President is giving his non-State of the Union speech, you know a tipping point has been reached. No, dear readers, Congress was not starting a trend by whistling at the President during his talk. Rather, members were using a messaging service created by a company named Twitter to communicate, presumably, to their constituents. Those messages, sent via Twitter, are the "tweets."
A tweet is a 140-character note delivered to a cell phone or a computer via Twitter.com. That's the length of this sentence & the 1 before. (Take Jane's word for it). To keep things short, one must be creative in the use of #s, &s, and improper spelling--like "R U going 2nite?"
A tweet answers the question, "What are you doing?" Now, if you're like Jane, a more likely question that comes to mind is "what's the point?" At first, Jane thought this response might be generational in nature. After all, Jane is a member of Generation Jones. (If that's a new term for you as well, get hip, people. Google it or look it up at Wikipedia). Apologies for the parenthetical digression. Jane's point is, she isn't as up on her technological toys as members of Generations X and Y and whatever comes after that. But the fact is, even the CEO of Twitter says that everyone, of every age, initially asks what the point of Twitter is. Jane gleaned that piece of information by watching a 90-minute interview with said CEO on C-Span last Saturday night. Now, of course, Jane has more exciting things to do on a Saturday night than watch the CEO of Twitter on C-Span. But she sacrificed her weekend fun in order to educate you, her dear readers. You're very welcome.
So, what is the point of Twitter? Well, the CEO never quite answered the question. It's as if the company created a communications tool first and is only now trying to figure out ways to apply it...and to monetize it. In the meantime, those outside the company are developing their own uses. Customer service representatives at companies like Southwest Airlines and Comcast follow Twitter to learn what's being said about their companies. Some local stores and cafes are offering daily specials via Twitter. And as news organizations lay off real reporters, they are increasingly relying on tweets to gather news (witness Mumbai and the Miracle on the Hudson) and to receive audience feedback.
It's obvious that there are plenty of personal uses for Twitter. Certainly, the most egocentric among us LOVE Twitter, because it can constantly document for all of our fans, namely ourselves, what we are doing every single second of the day. And Jane supposes that using Twitter when traveling can be useful. You can let people know what time your plane is arriving (I'm on the 4:05 flight that's been delayed until 8 PM) or where your plane is arriving (hi everyone, the plane landed in the Hudson instead of Charlotte. don't come to the airport).
But what about the business world? Are people chirping about Twitter at your office? How are you using Twitter on the job? Is Twitter here to stay or will it go the way of Pong, AltaVista, and WordPerfect? Jane would ask you to tweet your responses, but perhaps you are not yet part of the Twitter Nation. So, please "holla" by clicking below. There's an advantage to this old-fashioned means of communication--in responding, you can use as many characters as you darn well please.
