Twitter began offering trends on its front page and users’ sidebar as a way of identifying the most popular conversations taking place in real-time.
Through the use of geo-location, Twitter has also been able to identify which parts of the world are having discussions that are common in their area and now it’s began to offer users the ability to discover topics that may be relevant to them.
By changing the trending location, you can immediately see an updated list of trending topics in the right-hand sidebar of your Twitter’s homepage display. Currently the list of cities and countries is limited for now, but Twitter is working on providing further options to its users.
In addition to the trends, it’s also possible of identifying topics relevant to your area by utilising Twitter.com’s search engine. For example, by entering in the search engine “Cardiff”, you can see all conversations relevant to Cardiff.
During the bad weather, I used that feature a lot to find out what is going on in Cardiff and Trefforest.
Many times in life we may find ourselves going through the motions and not really realizing why we’re doing certain things or the benefits of doing them. Twitter can be like this sometimes, however I made a list of the top 3 reasons I use twitter to remind myself why I’m sharing with others the latest news and events and why twitter has become so popular recently.
1. Get the most up-to-date information
When the incident occurred where a plane made an emergency landing in Hudson River in New York, Twitter was lively with reports of the event containing immediate pictures.
One of the big advantages of Twitter is that it operates in real-time, so you know what’s going on right now. When you first start using twitter you may not know what to expect. One thing you can count on is that the information on twitter is the most current you can possibly get.
Keep in mind some of the most influential people and brightest minds in the world are using twitter. Barack Obama, Al Gore and many other business owners, marketers, bloggers and celebrities are regular tweeters as well so you can get access to information that you probably would not have otherwise or might take much more time to research.
On a further note, bear in mind that not every person being represented on Twitter or any other social network or website is actually the same person updating the information. Recently Barack Obama stated that he doesn’t use Twitter (click here to see my article about it).
2. Viral Conversation
It may take some time to get the hang of twitter and find all the people you would like to follow. But once this happens twitter can become a very valuable and enjoyable tool.
As you join the conversation and people get to know you, they may be able to give you some valuable insight and perspective about your situation. Of course, you would have to take the initiative and ask people most of the time, but like the saying goes “Ask and you shall receive”.
For example, if you are undecided about a certain product to buy, you can simply ask your followers if they have had any experience with the products you are considering. Chances are somebody will be able to give you some feedback that will help you make a more informed buying decision. Another example would be asking about something more casual like which movie to go see. If you have some movie-watching followers they may give you some good feedback about their thoughts on some movies.
3. Market your business or yourself
if you have a website or blog as I do, you can utilize twitter to gain more notoriety and drive more traffic. For example, if you make a new blog post you can simply make a tweet telling people that you have made a new post and many people will click on the link in your tweet to read it.
If you are an affiliate marketer, you can make a tweet about a coupon or update from a merchant that might help monetize your website as well. Make sure that you are making other tweets in the interim, there is nothing more annoying than following somebody who only says “hey go check out my blog” or “hey go to my website”, but just know that you can use twitter to build your business.
For those that don’t have a website or blog, you can simply use twitter to market yourself or build your brandname. Many employers are checking facebook and myspace pages nowadays to make a more informed decision about the candidates they may potentially hire. If they find you on twitter, it may give you another opportunity to make a good impression and show them you are socially conscious, which is always a good thing. Also keep in mind that people are much more likely to buy things from people they know, so if you are selling anything or plan to sell anything in the future, twitter can definitely be beneficial to you in this way as well.
The bottomline is that twitter is more than just telling people about what you are doing. I would recommend starting off slowly to see what others are doing and how they utilize twitter. Then as you gradually get the hang of it, you can get more involved and it will become much easier. You should be advised that twitter can get very addicting though, and like everything I would also recommend using twitter in moderation.
As a general rule, the more people that you follow, the more people will follow you. So you might have to do some legwork in the beginning and do some searches to find people. Search for topics that you are interested in and you will find tons of interesting people to follow that will provide valuable information. Chances are that many of these people will follow you back. This will be well worth the time because the more people that you have to converse with, the more enjoyable twitter will be for you.
Keep in mind though that content is king in twitter, so don’t forgot to make good tweets and people will find you. You can also re-tweet other comments that you think people will be interested in, just make sure to keep their @name in the beginning of it so the person that made the original tweet will get credit for it.
Some will still prefer to socialize with only people that they know on Facebook or MySpace, which I can understand.
I would argue that you can get to know people pretty well through socializing with them on the internet and that many people thought they were too cool for MySpace and Facebook when they first came out; now more than 30 million people have a Facebook account. Whichever you prefer, it’s all about being social and having fun.
Many times in life we may find ourselves going through the motions and not really realizing why we’re doing certain things or the benefits of doing them. Twitter can be like this sometimes, however I made a list of the top 3 reasons I use twitter to remind myself why I’m sharing with others the latest news and events and why twitter has become so popular recently.
