Twitter - My thoughts, its purpose, and business uses.

Twitter allows users to send a read messages of others of up to 140 characters. These messages are not long and are not intended to convey much information. The messages sent out by users are called tweets, in relation to the sound a bird makes, which is short and quick. My experience with the service so far is mixed. When twitter first came out I signed up for the service when I saw a positive post about the site on Digg. However, at that time, none of my friends really used the service so it was kind of pointless for me. When I created a new account, I noticed how easy it was to follow those you know, keep them updated on what you are doing, see what they are doing, and post little messages for everyone to read. I also enjoy how simplistic the site is in design. It has large buttons, is easy to read, and is self-explanatory.

The purpose of twitter is to provide users with a way to converge their current social networks. In a, one tweet can replace IM away messages, location statuses, and light blogging. While twitter cannot replace full-scale blogging sites, like blogger.com, it isn't trying to. The site, and its users, seem content with twitter and its features. While twitter does server its purposes of enabling people to send simple messages to those that follow them, some may find the service pointless. Other sites, such as facebook, implemented similar status updates in their site after twitter gained popularity on the web.

I think twitter is best for small businesses. It can help start-ups or small businesses establish relationships with customers. If customers have easy questions for the company, the company could just reply with @customer's name. This gives the company a personal feel and that's what people want. They like to know that they are listened to and by directly responding to a tweet, the customer would know they are being heard. Another use for a business could be a custom catering or other custom service. A customer could tweet a last minute request and those monitoring the twitter site within the company could quickly make the change, all without the need for a phone call and possibly being put on hold and wasting the customer's time. Overall, twitter is useful for both customers and businesses wishing to communicate quickly and effectively with each other.