What is a TWITTER!

Lately a lot of people have been asking me questions and commenting about Twitter. I have heard "What is a Tweet? Did you say TwitThat? You retweeted what! " One night my family said "What is this TweetDeck and HootSuite up on the computer?" I even had someone ask "What is a Twitter?"

I have been using Twitter now for 6 months and love how this tool has helped me build my PLN (Personal Learning Network) and make connections with others all over the world. Twitter is a social networking and microblogging service that lets users send and read messages called tweets. A tweet is a post that can be up to 140 characters in length and are posted on your Twitter profile page. Your tweets are also sent to all of your followers or friends that have tagged you to follow.

You can send and receive tweets through the Twitter website and many other external applications. I use Hootsuite and TweetDeck to keep my Twitter organized on my laptop and desktop at home. I also have Hootsuite and TweetDeck on my iTouch so I can take it everywhere.

Please don't think that this Twitter business made sense to me at first. :) I gathered some good resources about Twitter, added several friends that I found by networking through Twitter, and jumped right in.

So try Twitter out too! You can follow shannonmmiller and the vmlibraryvoice to get you started. From the Twitter homepage, you can search for Friends. How about your favorite authors? Actors? Singers? Politicians? The possibilities are endless.

I have compiled a Diigo List of Twitter Resources in my Diigo Library. These resources will give you ideas for different Twitter applications, ideas for learning, and things just for fun!

Have fun and send a TWEET today!