Wednesday 23 March 2011

Why Twitter Matters

In the five years or so since its inception, the social networking website Twitter has become one of the most popular forms of communicating between celebrities, colleagues, friends, classmates and everyone in between.

It seems that Twitter is well on its way to becoming the premier source of news for a great portion of the population. The first major event to be written about on Twitter was the earthquake that shook China in May of 2008. Some past events of note that were tweeted about before any other form of communication was used include:

The Mars excursion in June of 2008, when the Mars Rover found ice on the red planet. Twitter was used first to share the news.
In February 2011 when Tony Clement overturned the ruling of the CRTC on usage-based billing, followers on Twitter were the first to be informed.
  
In addition, Twitter was crucial in Barack Obama's campaign for President in 2008, for the protesters in Iran, also in 2008, and in other major global events.

When Oprah joined Twitter in 2009, she gained 76,000 followers within 15 minutes. When Charlie Sheen joined this past month he had one million followers in 24 hours.  Given that Twitter has approximately 20 million users, these numbers are staggering.

We will continue to regularly post tips and tricks for creating and maintaining your own Twitter account, whether it is to promote your business, get up-to-the-minute news or to simply keep in touch with friends, family and colleagues.

To get you started, here is a link to Twitter's own guide to the best practices to use when using their site:
http://tinyurl.com/4fudr4f

ES Computer Training has a Twitter account. Follow us for updates about social networking, upcoming courses and interesting facts and stories from around the world!
http://twitter.com/#!/anneleroux

Our Social Networking course is available for a variety of professionals and covers not only Twitter but also Facebook, LinkedIn, blogging and forums. For dates and locations, see http://www.escomputertraining.com/

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