I tweet, you tweet, we all tweet together! Twitter, it’s currently the buzz word of the marketing world but what’s so great about it? It’s just a 140 character message system. That’s where your wrong! When I first heard about Twitter I was basically told that it was a system where I could send a 140 character message to my contacts. The first thing I thought was how is this different from a text message and how could it be applied to a business? Although I was very sceptical of how such a simple service could have such a profound effect on the market, its benefits when you investigate could have a huge shift in how business practises and customer service are conducted in the future.

What exactly is twitter? Twitter is basically a marriage between short code messaging and instant messaging. It allows you to send Tweets which are text-based posts of up to 140 bytes in length. Updates are displayed on the user’s profile page and delivered to other users who have signed up to receive them. Senders can restrict delivery to those in their circle of friends/clients or delivery to everyone. Users can send and receive updates via the Twitter website, SMS, RSS (receive only), or through applications such as Tweetie, Twitterrific, Twitterfon, TweetDeck and Feedalizr.

Now for the real truth about the popularity of twitter. Twitter is like an ice-berg where you can only see the tip of it. Currently it is being used by everyday people to post updates about what they are currently doing in their lives.