A couple of my friends don’t quite understand the value of Twitter so I thought I’d write a short blog to go over how to use Twitter as an informational resource.

What the #$@! is Twitter

Twitter is a blog that allots the same amount of characters as a text message, so the posts are short and sweet. It resembles the same functionality as the Facebook status update, except with Twitter you can get information outside of your friend group, which if done properly, can be a huge resource.

But I don’t care about celebrities and random people

A lot of people use Twitter to give updates on what they are doing and thinking every moment. Which might be good for them but I could care less knowing when people are finding a parking spot, at the free clinic, or rediscovering their love for pickles (taken from twouble with twitter video). Most of the celebrity Twitter accounts don’t really have anything useful unless you’re a stalker and trying to capture them for ransom. There are other uses for Twitter!

Then what the deuce is it for?

You can use Twitter as a resource for staying up to date with information you find valuable. You can follow your local newspapers to get the news, your favorite sports team to get team updates, designers for mid-day inspiration, smart tech nerds to see what they are working on, or stay on top of whatever field you work in by following the people who are the best at it.

Twitter also can rival Google search in some ways also. Searching for “Ruby on Rails” will give you results based on what users have posted rather than on what a computer crawled for. That’s pretty awesome and means with Twitter you can get real time search results. For example, Did Facebook go down? Search Twitter for “Facebook” and see if 500 other people are complaining that they can’t log in.

How do people follow hundreds of people though?

Use a desktop client! Seesmic Desktop is my favorite but TweetDeck is a good rival. With Seesmic I can set lists up to delegate how I track people. I have a list for: Tech, Design, News, Posts-a-lot, Real Friends, BizPeeps, and Others. I can also keep track of my account (@newparadigm) and our clothing company (@137clothing) without having to switch accounts back and forth.

Seesmic Desktop

Tags: micro-blogging, seesmic, social media, twitter