Ben's Talk3G Blog

Despite its massive success a lot of people still struggle with finding a use for Twitter. Facebook is such an obvious social tool but, for an outsider looking in, Twitter is cloaked in mystery. In fact, once 'in' people I speak to often find it just as mystifying!

I struggled with the concept at first. Ok, I can 'follow' people, which seems a bit like subscribing to an RSS feed. They say it, I see it. That doesn't sound very interactive or addictive. People can follow me, seeing what I say, but initially nobody is - no followers means no one can hear you, no matter how much wit you can fit into 140 characters.

Things rapidly start to change when you follow a few people you know, and they follow you back. In fact, following just one person you find interesting is enough to get the ball rolling. You 'mention' them (a message containing their Twitter name, it gets picked up by them whether they follow you or not) and, if your message was interesting enough, they 'mention' you back. Now everyone who follows them sees their message mentioning you. Again, if the message is interesting to these new readers, they may follow you or even mention you themselves - promoting your Twitter handle to yet more users within the twitosphere.

Many of the (very) interesting Twitter users I follow I've encountered in this way. They'll be chatting publicly about something that interests me with someone I already know, and I'll join in. Next up, once you've got some followers, you start getting 'retweets'. This is when someone likes, or is interested enough in, your message to the extent that they want to repeat it to their own followers.

Now that you're all linked up with people you find interesting (and no doubt following a few celebrities that you're mildly infatuated with - many of which will happily communicate with you) you'll suddenly notice you've got a powerful information machine at your fingertips. Sharing links on twitter is massive (URL shortening services like bit.ly help you cram long links into tweets), and before long you'll find news on Twitter interests you much more than on any single website. That's because you're following people that interest you, so it's likely that if they find a news story they like then you will too.

Everyone on Twitter posts a certain amount of mindless nonsense that only a few people will find interesting. The best tweets, however, tend to be either comments (with links) on current events, or messages based on a specific subject of which you're knowledgeable. I was lucky enough to get inducted to Twitter through Talk3G so there's a core theme of mobile running through my timeline. But it'd be a very boring, much less addictive place without the more bizarre, sometimes personal, messages that creep in alongside.