I’ve recently started to use Twitter and I keep getting questions from friends as to why…

So here are the things I like about Twitter -

• Ability to follow “leaders” in a given field. For example, during the Tour de France, I can see quick updates from Lance Armstrong, Levi Leipheimer, and many other direct participants in the race. Within photography, Scott Kelby, Joe McNally, their assistants, and many more leaders and influencers post worthwhile things to read on a regular basis.
• Ability to send those leaders messages directly. They then have the opportunity to read/scan “fan” email very quickly. They can create a community without having to involve others
• Dynamic creation of communities such as during the 2nd Annual Worldwide Photowalk, where participants can post related messages by simply adding a special “tag” to their messages(tweets).
• Having a character limit of 140 characters forces messages to be short and to the point.
• Ability for “news” to be reported first from the masses of users around the globe. Remember the photo from the US Airways crash in early 2009? Came from Twitter first

Here’s what intrigues me and I’d like to research -

• How communities are created
• How trends spread
• Determining a person’s interests from whom they follow and the content of their posts
• Figuring out the degrees of separation within the Twitter community as a whole. (ie, the Kevin Bacon game)

And, yes, there are things that I really don’t like -

• Individuals who post inane things like “Heading to the post office”, “going on a photowalk”, “eating dinner with the family”, etc. If you’re message isn’t going to be have value or having meaning to others than don’t post it.
• Individuals who take advantage of communities to sell their products or direct traffic to their sites/blogs

Of course, Letterman always has his say….

Update (25 July 2009): Twitter posted Twitter 101 for Business this past week.

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