Hooked on Twitter

Several months ago, I gave Twitter a shot. After about a week or so, I couldn't understand why anyone needed it. It wasn't that much different than your status message in Facebook or MySpace... or at least that's what I thought. I deleted my account and gave up on it. After some time, I thought things over, and decided to get back into it... not so much as a way of tracking my friends, but as a way of promoting my business. I figured the more sites out there where my business is exposed, the more chance someone would see it. So, a few weeks ago, I created a new Twitter account, and started following a few pages. Later, I found out about a nice program called TweetDeck. With TweetDeck, you don't have to have your Twitter page open and refresh it to see the newest tweets. It does the checking for you, and lets you know when someone you're following posts a new tweet. What I've learned is that Twitter is not only a good way to follow your friends, but a great way to get information delivered to you quickly, as it happens. For example, I'm following the official Twitter page of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. I learned about the firing of their offensive coordinator before any of the news organizations posted anything about it. From some other pages I'm following, I learned about a brand new app available for my cell phone the day it came out. I get weather alerts immediately as soon as their posted. I even found out about a new version of Facebook called Facebook Lite the day it was released. I'm not so sure I want to follow all my friends on Twitter... I have Facebook for that. But as far as information is concerned, Twitter, when paired up with a program like TweetDeck, is probably one of the best websites ever created. Ronnie Boone Multimedia Services can be found on Twitter: @BooneMultimedia