You might have heard about a Web site called Twitter. You might have even visited it but scratched your head, asking, what is this? That's a good question because even though Twitter itself is simple, it's not immediately apparent what it's good for.
Simply put, Twitter is a way for you to let other people know what you are doing. After you register at Twitter, you'll be presented with this question: "What are you doing?" Below the question is a blank rectangle for you to give your answer. You must answer using 140 characters or less (about two sentences). This answer is called a "tweet" and you can tweet as often as you want (for free). Anyone who has your Twitter address can read your tweets.
Who cares? Another excellent question. The answer: people who care about you—your friends, your family, even people you've never met but only know online. You can let people know you're tweeting on Twitter by letting them know you have a Twitter address: mine is http://twitter.com/frauenfelder. Some people put their Twitter address at the bottom of their email messages to let people know.
Others post it on their blog or Web page.
I use Twitter to let my friends know about funny photos and stories I've found online, or if I'm going to an event in town that other people might want to attend. If you sign up for Twitter and stick with it, I'm sure you'll come up with you own uses.
Need even more social networking in your life? Check out our article "What are MySpace, Facebook, and LinkedIn?"
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