Tweets, in the world of instant communication, refer to the text based posts or updates sent by users of Twitter, which is a free social networking and micro-blogging service.

Tweets, or Twitters, are abbreviated text messages, not more than 140 characters long. These updates are sent via SMS to mobile phones or posted on the Twitter website or on a personal website.

They can also be received via instant messaging, through an application such as Facebook, Flickr and YouTube, or as a RSS feeds or an email. The sender is able to restrict the delivery of his message to a selected circle of friends, or ‘followers’, but the default includes everyone connected to the delivery site.

Designed by Biz Stone, Twitter was conceptualized by Jack Dorsey, a software writer who claims to have been inspired by the need for instant communication by courier and emergency service dispatchers.

Twitter was launched in 2006 and sparked an immediate micro-blogging movement between friends, family and co-workers who communicate with each other by sending short, frequent status updates.

Although generally seen as a fun but lightweight messaging service, Twitter came into its own during the recent devastating earthquake in China.

Reports about the disaster travelled around the world in the form of Tweets, sent by the victims, and were credited with being the source of information for the major news organisations. Whether or not the mainstream media will continue to take advantage of Twitter’s services remains to be seen.

Is the business world tweeting?

Certain companies have already picked up on the value of Twitter for quick interaction with their customers. Some of the examples gleaned from various blogs include Southwest Airlines, who use Twitter to inform customers of special deals and events. Companies like Starbucks listen in on the ‘Tweetersphere’ and respond to comments about their organizations and Dell announces sales events.

As an example of using Twitter to drive traffic to their website, The New York Times is doing a great job, sending out tweets throughout the day which include headlines and the URL to the actual story. News feeds are also sent out regularly by CNN.

In addition, Tweets from dissatisfied customers can act as an early warning system alerting businesses to possible problems with their brands. Vigilant companies can keep up to date by logging onto ‘Tweetscan’ and doing a search on their products or services to find out what their clients are saying about them.

Having said this, the mood among most Tweeters right now seems to be anti-monetization, although there is nothing to stop individuals giving their followers access to blogs or websites which market their products. No doubt this will change. Already the internet is full of sites offering advice for making money on Twitter.

Technical hitches:

One of the drawbacks to mainstream adoption of Twitter is the question of reliability. Twitter has suffered many outages which have frustrated even their faithful followers, although to date it has not affected the growth of the network.

According to its own development blog, Twitter was not designed originally as a messaging system although that is its basic function. Constant upgrading and the gradual replacement of components which are not able to handle the growth of the network seem to be the modus operandus of the company as they strive for stability.

Starting to Twitter

Joining Twitter couldn’t be easier, just go to Twitter.com and click on ‘join for free’. Unfortunately there is also a possibility that the website might display something like this: “Something is technically wrong. Thanks for noticing—we’re going to fix it up and have things back to normal soon.” (See Technical hitches above).

When you do join up, remember that, cute as nicknames may be, using your real name, and possibly a photograph, makes it much easier for friends to find you. Don’t forget to give your friends your user name or the link to your Twitter page. The Actions box will give you the ‘Add’ link which will allow you to add friends to your page.

When you are setting up your account you are given the opportunity to select the option: protect my updates. This is a privacy setting which prevents people from reading your Tweets unless you authorise them to do so. It is probably more fun to leave it unchecked as long as you are aware that the messages you send are being broadcast far and wide!

Your Twitter account can also be connected to your mobile phone and whatever instant messenger account you use. Choose ‘Settings’ and the website will talk you through the relatively straightforward process.

Conclusion:

Twitter has not quite made it to mainstream yet, regardless of the rapidly increasing band of users. While a growing number of businesses are using the network to build personal contacts with customers its main focus still appears to be friendly updates based on answers to the question ‘what are you doing now?’

If it is to grow and develop beyond the boundaries of a fairly frivolous message centre the company’s engineers will need to iron out the problems which have been plaguing this social network.