Twitter: Or, How to stop worrying and love the 140 character message

Twitter provides a simple, direct and quick way to connect with people. It has enormous potential as a marketing tool or something that can quickly spread ideas and important messages. Here are some cool and intriguing things that would not have happened without Twitter, the little website that is changing social interaction one tweet at a time:

• Professional cyclist Lance Armstrong impulsively organised a group ride in Ireland via his Twitter account.

• @abolish cancer announced that for every person who followed their account, a supporter of theirs would donate one US dollar. Over $7,500 was raised.

• Recently, South Korea tried to bar users from reading tweets from an account opened by a branch of the North Korean government, who were using Twitter to spread anti-South and anti-US propaganda.

• A Chinese school used Twitter to help students learn by asking them to tweet and respond to fellow students tweets in English

• Mike Massimino, an astronaut, sent the first tweet from space in 2009 during a mission to the Hubble space telescope.

• In the US, the library of Congress has pledged to document every single tweet made since Twitter’s inception in 2006.

• In Australia, the Australian Football League official Twitter has involved the fans in the game by publishing crowd tweets LIVE on the scoreboard at the game. This turns every spectator into a potential commentator. Look> http://twitpic.com/2jujhx

Twitters effectiveness in connecting people will only grow as more people sign up, with currently 100 million users on Twitter. In the future, Twitter could be used even more prominently in events like elections, national disasters, and other global issues which require the quick dissemination of important information. Twitter is more than just inane status updates, it’s changing the way we interact.

Check out: 

www.twitter.com

www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter_usage