Why Aren't You Tweeting?

About a year ago my husband introduced me to Twitter. I've been hooked ever since. If you haven't heard of it by now, Twitter is a social networking service that allows users to follow each other based on their "tweets" or answers to a simple question: What are you doing? While there are thousands of users on Twitter, I am surprised by how many of my friends and colleagues still don't know about it or are disinterested in using it. Here is my attempt to change their minds.

Twitter allows people (or Tweeple, if you prefer) to connect to other users based on a common interest or topic. The idea is to expand your network without necessarily having to know the person you want to connect with, as with Facebook. In this way, you could follow people whom you share common interests with.

Since you are given 140 characters per feed to say what you want, many users have started using Twitter for research purposes or to have their questions answered by other Tweeters. For example "Should I get the Wii Fit or EA Sports Active?". So, unlike with Google where you have to directly do the work and read a bunch of material to find the answer to your question, Twitter allows your question to become an "open forum" for discussion.

In this same fashion, you can also follow discussions or questions posted by other users on Twitter. Since the service does not stop you from following people you don't know, you can gain insight by reading opinions of others on topics that interest you.

Twitter has tapped into another aspect of social networking that genuinely sets out to connect people throughout the world rather than keeping them connected to the same social pool of which they have always been a part, such as Facebook or Myspace. So here is my advice to those who still haven't become a part of this new pool: go tweet tweeple!