By now you've likely heard of Twitter, and depending on where you've heard about it, you may have more questions about it than answers. Some people are obsessed with it, some make fun of it, and a whole bunch of people don't understand it. If you're in that last category, I've written this article for you.

The internet abounds with articles, blogs, videos, podcasts, and tutorials about Twitter. Yes, I've written another one. I would encourage you to read as many of those articles as you can stand. But if you start with this article, I will try to bring you up to speed on the basics, and do it as briefly as possible.

To be sure, a number of communities have wholeheartedly embraced Twitter both in use and in concept. The rise of Twitter's popularity is indicative of the kind of interactive web technologies that are spreading all over the internet. It is changing the way we use technology to communicate, and it is accelerating innovation and collaboration in ways not seen since the widepsread introduction of email.

Lofty concepts aside, Twitter is simply a communication tool. It allows one person to send a short message to a group of people in real-time. As fast as you can type 140 characters and hit 'enter', you can send your message, commonly called a tweet, to anyone who is listening. 'Anyone' is an important word- a key feature of Twitter is the fact that (most) every tweet is public. It is an open-air conversation of gigantic proportions.

How is this possible without proportionally gigantic confusion? Here's a little video I've found helpful in explaining the basics: Twitter in Plain English.

This video illustrates the basic idea of how it works, and how one might use it for personal ends. However, the power of this means of communication goes far beyond daily minutiae that may or may not be worth sharing. It is a new kind of networking- and professionals in numerous disciplines are discovering its potential.

Micro-blogging

In its most basic form, Twitter is a micro-blogging platform. Every person with a Twitter account has a page showing their tweets. If you've got an account, you can type anything you want, 140 characters at a time, and it will be recorded on your Twitter page for anyone to see. Most likely, no one is going to stop by unless you tell them you're here. However, once someone reads your tweets, and decides that they like what you have written, they can choose to follow you. Once they follow you, your tweets are going to be visible in their Twitter feed, or the page they see when they log into Twitter. Now, they don't have to come back to your micro-blog to check if you've updated it. Your tweets are sent directly to them as soon as you write them.

Likewise, if you visit someone's Twitter page, and find their tweets to be interesting or useful, you can choose to follow that person. Now you will have their tweet show up in your Twitter feed as soon as they type it. Multiply this by a couple of hundred people, and you've got a thriving stream of interesting tweets, hand-picked by your own selection criteria.

World Party

Let's try an analogy to explain it from a different angle:

Picture a huge building (like a football stadium) where thousands of people are packed into it, all talking at the same time. Kind of like a giant cocktail party. Some are talking to each other, some are talking to the air. You enter the room, and you're carrying a box of wireless microphones. (bear with me, its an analogy) These microphones will transmit sound to a pair of headphones you're wearing. So anywhere you place a microphone, you'll hear the sound in your headphones. Got it? Ok, let's move on.

You proceed to walk around the room and mingle- you walk through the crowd, listening for an interesting conversation, or move around until you find someone that you'd like to talk to. As you walk through the crowd, you hear someone say something interesting. You'd like to hear more from this person, so you stand there and listen to everything that they have to say. (this is like when you visit someone's Twitter page... you see all their tweets, and just their tweets, on one page, listed blog-style.)

Following

You decide that this person is so interesting, that you will want to hear the things that they will say in the future. But you have many more people to visit at the party! So you place one of your microphones in front of them. Now whenever they say something, you will hear it in your headphones, no matter where you are. (this is like when you follow someone- their tweets will now show up in your Twitter feed. Now you don't have to visit their Twitter page anymore, their tweets will come to you.)

So now you continue to mingle, listening to a whole bunch of people.. and each time you find someone interesting or helpful, you put a microphone in front of them (you follow them).

If you're following a nice collection of people, all of a sudden you've got an interesting and informative stream of tweets and links coming into your Twitter feed. You're already reaping one of the benefits of Twitter- and all you have to do is check your Twitter feed.

Getting Followed

Now back to the party. You're also an interesting person, yes? You've got some things to share... you happen to know a few things about your profession or area of interest (I know what I know, if you know what I mean). So you can just start talking about it! Set up your soapbox and say some things about yourself. Make a few statements about what you are interested in, and what kinds of things you'd like to talk about. Post a link to an article or video that you like. (All of this is filling out your Twitter page with entries, so when people stop by, they'll get a feel for you and what you're all about)

Retweeting

A way to get the ball rolling is to restate something that you heard someone else say in your headphones. This is a way of saying 'this is good advice', or 'i agree with this', or 'i just learned this'. Its passing on a nugget of information. (this is 'retweeting', where you re-state someone's existing tweet in your own tweet. You start this kind of tweet with the letters 'RT' and the originator's name with an @ symbol in front of it.)

Once you get a few tweets of your own, and spend some quality time on your soapbox making statements to the air, you'll likely find that someone has read your Twitter page, and placed a microphone in front of you. (this is when someone follows you) Perhaps you have a common interest. Take a quick visit to their Twitter page, and see if they are saying interesting things. You can choose to follow them back.

Now you're getting the hang of it, and therefore I will carefully step away from the microphone/party analogy, and tell you about a few more things.

Note that following and being followed are not necessarily connected. You can follow someone and they may or may not choose to follow you back. Likewise, you may have someone follow you that perhaps you don't want to follow back. You'll have a certain percentage of your network that is one-way communication, and that's ok. Hopefully there's also a certain percentage of your network that has two-way communication as well.

Finding People to Follow

How do you find interesting people? Many bloggers give their Twitter name on their website. That's one way to find people. A great way to find people of similar interest is to look at who other people are following. When you visit someone's Twitter page, you'll see two numbers below their Bio. The first number on the left is the number of people that this person is following. if you click on the word "following", you'll see a list of the people that they are following. This is a great way to find people interested in the same things.

How about finding someone whose name you already know? Some expert in your field? a celebrity? There's a "find people' link in the top menu bar.

Replies

Now here you are, reading all these interesting tweets and learning all sorts of things from the people that you are following. Perhaps you see a tweet that you would like to respond to- someone asked a question, or someone made a statement that you would like to add to. You can get this person's attention whether they are following you or not. Direct your reply to them by beginning your tweet with '@' followed by their Twitter name. This will show up in their Twitter stream as "replies', or 'mentions'. Other people who are following both you and the person you are replying to will also see the reply. And your reply will be recorded on your Twitter page as well. This raises a key feature of Twitter- these conversations are done in public. Others can view your conversation and perhaps learn the same thing you did. Others may even reply to both of you and join the exchange. You can see your replies and mentions by clicking on the link just below 'home' in the right hand column of your Twitter page. it should be an @ symbol followed by your name.

Direct Messaging

It is possible to send a private message to someone, but only if they are following you. These are called direct message, and to send one, you start your tweet with 'D' followed by a space and the person's name. There's also a drop-down box on the Twitter page if you send it from there. You can view your direct messages by clicking on the link in the right-hand column labeled "Direct Messages"

Search

One more feature, perhaps the most powerful of all. Twitter allows you to search ALL of the tweets in the Twitterverse for any term or phrase. The search box is right there in the RH column. Type in something you're interested in, and you'll see any and all tweets that have included this word. This is a great way to cut through the noise of a million tweets and find the people and conversations that are of most interest to you.

Hastags

If you've been watching tweets long enough, you've probably noticed that some tweets have a keyword at the end, usually a pound sign followed directly by a word. This is a called a hashtag, and it tags any particular tweet to be associated with any other tweet with the same tag. Most often, they are topical. They make searching for a particular topic much easier, and tagging your own tweets will make them more findable.

These are the basics. There's much more to talk about, but we'll save it for another article. It is worth noting that people use Twitter in different ways to achieve different ends. Your particular use may vary dramatically from the next person. In future articles, I will outline some of the ways that I use Twitter, and how it has changed the way i communicate.

Until then, happy tweeting!

Continued Reading:

Mashable's Twitter Resources