What is Twitter?

You may have heard about Twitter in the past few weeks. It seems everyone from Brian Williams to Charlie Gibson to Jon Stewart has been talking about it. In fact, our Governor (@MyManMitch) and Lieutenant Governor (@BeckySkillman) have accounts now. You can also see if your US Congressional Representatives are on Twitter at TweetCongress.org, and you can probably find the account of your favorite company or organization (@Starbucks, @WholeFoods, @FoundersHeart (American Heart Association), and @VisitIndiana – I threw that one in to see if you were still reading) So, what exactly is Twitter?

I embedded the video above in my last post, but here it is again if you need a quick primer on Twitter. Twitter is a website that allows you to post 140-character updates. You can also “follow” other people on Twitter to see what they’re up to and people can “follow” you and your updates. While it sounds a little odd, it’s really just a new step in mass communication and “crowd-sourcing”.

When you post a message to Twitter, anyone who is following you can see it. This works great if you’re trying to get information out or if you have a question to ask (ex. “Who is planning a trip to Indiana this summer? Let us know if you need any tips” – That was only 79 characters, by the way and Twitter allows up to 140).  We use our account (@VisitIndiana) to post new entries on our blogs, new photos from our Flickr group and announcements various other new things happening in Indiana or on VisitIndiana.com.

While Twitter might seem to be overwhelming or even useless, it serves a great purpose. Just like with other forms of social media, Twitter helps you to connect with people who are interested in what you or your organization have to offer.

There are tools that can help organize the constant stream of information that is Twitter, including TweetDeck, PowerTwitter, and Twhirl. These tools give you the ability to filter out specific words or phrases or even users that you want to listen to.

Twitter an be a powerful tool for getting information out to some of your more tech-savvy users and is quickly becoming a tool that more and more organizations are using.

Are you on Twitter? If so, follow us (@VisitIndiana) and leave a comment on this blog with your Twitter name.