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Twitter is a free social networking and micro-blogging service that allows users to send "updates" (or "tweets"; text-based posts, up to 140 characters long) to the Twitter website, via short message service (SMS), instant messaging, or a third-party application such as Twitterrific or Facebook.

Updates are displayed on the user's profile page and instantly delivered to other users who have signed up to receive them. The sender can restrict delivery to those in his or her circle of friends (delivery to everyone is the default). Users can receive updates via the Twitter website, instant messaging, SMS, RSS, email or through an application.

Small Business Uses of Twitter

Like blogs, Twitter and other micro-blogging services allow a small business to distribute messages and information to any audience who wants to subscribe (on Twitter, this is called "following.") As "followers" (for example, your employees) can "unfollow" you with a click, it is important that you learn the type of messaging your audience desires.

And in some cases, you may want to provide multiple Twitter accounts for various types of messages. For example, some customers may want to sign up for special announcements related to sales or marked-down items. Other customers may want not be interested in sales, but may want to be alerted whenever you offer a special educational program.

See also

• Creating and Managing a Business Weblog Basics
• Categories:Manuals
• Categories:Marketing
• Categories:Technology

External links

• Twitter.com