什么是Twitter？Twitter的力量何来？——图灵beta计划：Twitter Power样章

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What Is Twitter and Why Is It So Powerful?

So Twitter as a whole isn’t unique.

Yes, it’s big, and that makes it unique among microblogging

services (if not among social media sites).

It’s got buzz that other sites just don’t have.

And it’s growing at the kind of phenomenal rate that’s already

forced the social media giants to look over their shoulders and

copy it.

But it’s not the only service that allows people to broadcast short

messages.We’ve already seen that there are plenty of other sites that

offer the same service in one form or another.

But Twitter is by far the most powerful microblogging service

currently available, and marketers absolutely need to be aware of it.

Twitter and Its Successes

I’ve mentioned that at its simplest, Twitter is just a means to send

short updates to people who want to receive them.

Themost basicway to do that is to log into your Twitter account

on the Web and type your tweet into the text field. Anyone can see

all of your outgoing tweets if they choose to look at your profile.

Followers can also see a list of tweets fromeveryone they follow

when they log into their Twitter home pages.



Your Twitter experience, then, will be made up of sending your

own updates and reading tweets from others.

But that’s just the start.

One of the inspirations for Twitter was the idea of combining

Web-based updates with mobile information. So Twitter makes it

possible formobile phone users to send updates fromtheir handsets,

and in some places to receive them on their handsets, too.

So if you had just agreed a joint venturewith amarketing partner

while sitting in a bar at a conference, and you wanted to share the

news right away, you could just pull out your mobile phone and

send a quick message to Twitter.

Yes, you might have to pay for that SMS message. You wouldn’t

pay Twitter. But you would pay your mobile phone company . . . for

one message.



Twitter will then pass that message on to all of your followers,

including by broadcasting further SMSmessages to peoplewho have

chosen to receive their updates on their mobiles.

Initially, Twitter footed the bill for that service; later, they nego-

tiated agreements with companies in the United States, Canada, and

India. However, users in the United Kingdom—where Twitter failed

to broker a deal with communication companies—cannot receive

updates by SMS and have to use one of the other mobile services,

such as m.twitter.com or TwitterBerry.

For the rest of us though, Twitter can function as a powerful,

low-cost SMS broadcasting station.

The benefits that can bring can be huge. I mentioned that the

Red Cross have already spotted Twitter’s potential and use the site

to provide updates related to ongoing disasters.

That’s a service that relies on Twitter’s speed, numbers, and

mobility.



Red Cross volunteers are able to send an SMS about a newshelter

opening or the changing direction of a brushfire and have lots of

people read it at the same time.

But Twitter also brings the benefit of immediate feedback—and

that can have tremendous advantages for individuals.

The Power of Twitter’s Immediate Feedback

Twitter’s speed means that you can send out an SMS to Twitter from

wherever you are and have lots of people read it immediately. That’s

a service that was really meant for fun, but it’s proven itself to be

hugely valuable as a way of asking for help.

In June 2008, Pastor CarlosWhittaker (twitter.com/loswhit), Ser-

vice Programming Director at Buckhead Church in Atlanta, Georgia,

found himself stuck at the airport in Dallas and was told he would

have to wait six hours for the next flight. Tired and not too happy at

the thought of spending a night on the airport floor, he sent a tweet

about his predicament.

Within just two minutes, he had received seven e-mails, three

phone calls, and a huge number of tweets.



Best of all, Trevor DeVage of charity group Remedy4ThisHeart

turned up and gave Carlos a key to a room at a nearby Hyatt hotel.

Thatwas certainly a helpful response, but sometimes tweets can

generate the sort of response that makes an even more important

difference to people’s lives.

In April 2008, for example, James Buck (twitter.com/

jamesbuck), a journalism student at the University of California

at Berkeley, was arrested with his interpreter, Mohammed Maree,

while photographing an anti-government rally in Egypt. Sitting in the

police van, hewas able to use hismobile phone to send the one-word

message “arrested” to his followers on Twitter. They immediately

alerted the U.S. embassy and his college, which quickly obtained a

lawyer for him. James continued to provide updates about his arrest

via Twitter, andwas released the following day,which he announced

on Twitter with the word “free.”

His interpreter was less lucky: Maree was held for 90 days,

beaten and abused, and was only released after a hunger strike.

Both of those examples relied on Twitter followers taking action

outside Twitter. But that’s not usually where the responses take

place.

One of the most enjoyable aspects of Twitter isn’t updating

friends and family about the small details of your life. That’s fun,

but it only works one way.

Twitter is a two-way communication tool—and that’s very

important.



It means you can ask questions and request help to very special-

ized problems, and get the expert advice you need.

Instant Access to Smart People 24/7

Later in this book, I’m going to talk in more detail about how to

use Twitter not just as a billboard for making announcements, but

as way of holding a conversation with people who matter.

Usually, you’ll be holding that conversation with friends or

customers. But because Twitter has such a well-educated and pro-

fessional group of followers, it can also function as an always-open

help center for just about any subject you can imagine.

Look at people’s Twitter pages and you’ll see this time and time

again.

Hidden among the announcements about the type of music

they’re listening to or the work they’re doing, you’ll see questions

about how to fix this problem, where they can buy that gizmo, or

even what they should have for supper. (Twitter users do seem to

think about food a lot!)

Some of those questions are a bit silly. Some, though, are very

technical, but Twitter can actually answer them.

The answer to Aditya’s question about a ScriptDoc parser for

TextMate, for example, appears to have been JSDoc.

If you want to know what that is, don’t ask me; ask someone on

Twitter.

So that’s the history and that’s where Twitter came from. It’s

an incredibly simple tool that has already had a massive impact on

people’s lives. Growing out of socialmedia sites to focus on just one

tiny action, it’s become hugely popular with some of the world’s

smartest people and highest earners. It’s pulled innocents out of

prison and given a lost pastor a place to sleep.

It’s useful, it’s important, and it can generate earnings for any

business, online or offline. But you have to know how to use it. In

the rest of this book, I’m going to reveal all of the most important

tips, strategies, and approaches for getting the most out of Twitter.

It’s going to be hands-on, practical, comprehensive, and results-

driven.

So let’s start right at the beginning.