Come for the Ride…

For people that don’t Twitter or know what it is, the concept of micro-blogging and live blogging may be hard to understand. After all, most social media news you read today still focuses on Facebook and MySpace and neither one has been making headlines due to their built in blogging abilities.

So what makes Twitter so popular? Well, I tried to answer that question awhile back but I couldn’t because I wasn’t a power user. However, after 4 months of using Twitter via the web (reloading Twitter.com); then progressing to twittering via IM, Twitterrific, mobile texting to 40404 and so on, I’m glad to say I’m finally getting the hang of it.

Like all social networking applications, the app is worthless if you live in a bubble. To fully appreciate the power of any social network, you need to have an established network! Once I started stalking following people, the whole point of Twitter finally made sense.

For the most part, I’ve been following social media experts and various angels and VC’s who have been the first adopters to Twitter. While I did not personally go to the Georgia Technology Summit or SXSW, the people that were there all gave a pretty detailed play-by-play of the events. What struck me was that Twitter in this usage, allowed you to pass notes to each other during the seminars! (Something I’m sure all of our inner child had the desire to do since the 4th grade.)

Another pro to micro-blogging is that it can be written closer to real time and you don’t have to sit in front of the computer for 30 minutes to draft out your thoughts. If social networks keep your close friends and acquaintances at an arm’s length, then Twitter really brings everyone closer to an earshot of a whisper. I’ve gotten to know a lot of the people I follow on a more personal level. Sometimes I learn about their trips and at other times, I can help them with simple computer issues. For the more famous people in the industry who keeps a professional front, they definitely appear to be more approachable when you follow them day-to-day.

But what if you don’t use Twitter and you simply don’t get it? Well, luckily some guy decided to produce the video below which explains Twitter in plain English.

For those of you who chooses to use Twitter, you can follow me at http://twitter.com/wei_yang. Also, I would love to know what you use the service for.

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