Welcome to the World of Microblogging

For my second emerging technologies post I decided I wanted to focus on twitter. Twitter is a microblogging site that allows you to tell the world what you're doing in 140 characters or less. All one has to do is go to http://www.twitter.com and register. After you've registered, there are literally millions of people that you can "follow." By "following" someone you are able to see their postings on your timeline.
Twitter is an amazing tool to keep people connected, share links to interesting/important articles, and to promote yourself. Initially I was very hesitant about signing up for twitter. It seemed like just another social network/blogging fad that would be here one day and gone the next. I felt this way until I talked with some of the "techies"(guys who work within the tech world.) at the coffee shop that I worked at. Douglas Karr, author of http://marketingtechblog.com/, explained to me that twitter allows people in his world to provide help to others stuck on projects, get out word of their latest projects, and even tell about cool things happening in the technology world. While I, myself, am not a "techie," I could see the benefit of being able to reach out to others. The great thing about twitter is that you can adjust privacy settings so that you can choose who can follow you and who can't. For my twitter account, www.twitter.com/darlinghollie, set to private. If you decide to sign up for twitter after reading this post feel free to add me, but be warned I tweet about silly things!
The tips that I have for twitter are pretty simple.

1. When selecting your user name, keep it short and simple. If it's a long name people will forget it.
2. Don't post something you'll regret...this is going out to everyone! If you don't want people to know it, don't say it!
3. Have fun! There are some many different unique people on twitter. I'm currently following Elizabeth Taylor. Twitter is pretty wide spread!

I hope everyone has fun tweeting!