PCW explores the latest techniques for using Twitter
Since 2006 Twitter has grown from a niche service barely heard of outside San Francisco to a media phenomenon.
Thanks to high-profile users, such as Stephen Fry and Oprah Winfrey, the website is now rarely out of the news.
Whether it’s really as revolutionary as many would like to make out is very much up for debate, as is whether the company will ever find a way to make some kind of profit from its users, but one thing is certain: it can be very addictive.
Using Twitter is simple enough: create an account on the website, log in, type your messages and they’ll appear at www.twitter.com/yourname for all the world to see.
Clicking the Follow button on any other user’s profile will make their updates display on your main Home page, allowing you to keep up with their latest news, while others can follow you in the same manner.
This simple approach, however, barely scratches the surface of what Twitter can do and how you can use it. In this article we’ll explain techniques, tricks and software that will make your tweeting easier, faster and more productive.
Beyond text Over its lifespan Twitter has evolved certain conventions that can be put to use to pack more value into your tweets. Probably the best known is addressing messages to a user by including their name prefaced by the @ symbol.
Twitter originally treated these messages as ‘replies’, as they allow for a remark to be directed at a particular user (‘@somebody can meet you 2pm’), but it now refers to them as ‘mentions’ as they can be used to include several users (‘@somebody meet you 2pm have received tickets from @somebodyelse’).
This is all very handy, but @ mentions have another use: they can be a good way to communicate with users who do not follow you.
The Twitter web interface includes a page that lists every mention of your username, whether from your contacts or other users, and other applications that we’ll discuss later make this information even more visible.
