Today we're learning about "extreme Twitter" in my Computer Assisted Reporting (C.A.R.) class. Since I have more than 900 "tweets" (I prefer to call them "twits" myself but "tweet" is the preferred nomenclature, dude) I think I'm already pretty "extreme." (Or, extremely lame, since I twit so much.)
The first lesson is, of course, be careful. Twitter can be viewed by anyone so make sure you know what you're twitting. (Mine is locked, so I have to approve anyone who sees my twits...unless I send them a direct twit using the "@" symbol and their username.)
We went over the basic structure of the Twitter homepage @username, direct messages, favorites, retweets, etc.
Currently trending worldwide: "Justin Bieber." This kid always seems to be trending so I'm pretty sure that 12-17 year old girls are the ones who twit the most. At least the evidence seems to suggest this.
Twitter only allows 140 characters, which is similar to the number of characters in a text message. Most major wireless carriers will allow 160 characters so I'm not sure why Twitter is capped at 140.
Dr. Baltrip also discussed hashtags, for example #Bacon, which are used to index twits. Hashtags are searchable.
One website discussed in class was Twitter Facts and, specifically, their post about following newsfeeds on Twitter. There's a lot of great information about Twitter that can be found here and I'm sure I'll get more out of Twitter after combing the site for tips.
Another site discussed was TwitterSearch, which I wasn't aware of and should make finding more sources for my article easier. Trendsmap allows you to track what's trending and where. I didn't know about it, either and I think I'm going to waste a lot of time playing with that site. When I don't have C.A.R. homework to do, of course. TweetDeck.com is a directory for Twitter and they also have an iPhone app, which means nothing to me since I have a Motorola Droid. Monitter.com lets you monitor current twits in real time, which is awesome...but a little big brother-ish, IMHO.
For ease of twitting links, which can often be long, Dr. Baltrip showed us bitly.com though, since BIMAD stands for "Bacon Is My Anti-Drug" I prefer bacn.me. Mmmm...Bacon.
Twitpic.com and twitvid.com are sites which allow you to post pictures and videos to your Twitter account.
Twitterfeed.com allows you to have your blogs post directly to Twitter. I do this manually but if you're lazy and/or post a lot of blog entries (which I do not) then I could see the appeal of this site.
Hootsuite.com allows you to combine many of your social networks into one dashboard. It's okay, I guess, but a little busy. Sort of unnecessary for me, since I used tabbed browsing in Firefox (and some of my networks, Blip.fm, for example, aren't supported) but I might get into it as time goes on.
Something completely unrelated to Twitter, but nonetheless an awesome tool, is the Google Wonder Wheel, which I think is really going to make my research easier. I would urge everyone to explore this tool. I plan on doing it.
Here are some good Google tips from the NY Times.
The last thing we discussed were "wordles" or "word clouds," which I had seen but didn't know there was a term for them or, really, how they worked. Apparently, they provide greater presence to words that are used more often in speeches, writing, etc. It's actually kind of cool.
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