Twitter for Dummies - Not All you want to know...

I use twitter in office like millions others do and some of them who don't understand what is it ask me lots of questions....and by this I am inspired to write my FAQ and few details about twitter and its features which millions of blogger's must have written about. Anyways I have to increase the number of post so here it comes....mind you it is not complete just a few of those which I can explain :)

Twitter: Twitter is a free social networking and microblogging service that enables its users to send and read messages known as tweets. (first line in Wikipedia)

Tweets: Tweets are text-based posts of up to 140 characters displayed on the author's profile page and delivered to the author's subscribers who are known as followers. In simple sentence, write down anything in 140 words and person who follows you will see it on his timeline.

Handle: Handle is a username which you create similar to GTalk, Yahoo IM, etc etc. Some put in real name and some do come with awesome alter ego handle.

Tweeple: People on twitter are called Tweeple

Followers: It is similar to being friend with someone on facebook. Well similar not same, here if you follow someone they can see your tweets. But the other person cannot see your tweet because he is not following you.







Timeline: This is again similar to Facebook wall where you will see tweets of Tweeples whom you are following.

RT (ReTweet): This is done when you like someones tweet on your timeline and want to show it to your  friend. It is bit simple, "@XYZ says twitter is awesome" and you agree with it and want to share with your group followers you just RT it and it will show as "RT: @XYZ says Twitter is awesome"and this can continue over and over again.





DM (Direct Message): This is an interesting feature of Twitter, you cannot DM who is not following you and vice versa. So to have a private chat you have to follow each other.

List: It is bit confusing for the new user but if you want to see your favorite tweeples in one page just add them to your List which you can name anything and click on it you will see what they have tweeted about. It is like a mini-follow list.

Hashtag (#tag): This works as a subject line and things which can be put together. The best use of it was when it rained heavily in Mumbai and people wanted to know the exact situation about Mumbai Rains, tweeples at the start or end of the tweet would just type #mumbairains which others can search and know about it instead of typing Mumbai or Rains which can give lots of info.

Reply: You can reply to another tweeple tweet by just using @username, this will be seen by the tweeple and he can reply you back. But make sure when you use @username other tweeple who follow you and other tweeple can see the tweet. So there is no privacy.

And you will always say, twitter is so difficult to understand and don't know what is going on. You say these things because you are on twitter web which is the last thing you should do. There are gazzillions of apps for desktop, MAC, mobile and iPhone that you would not want to go on twitter website to tweet. You just download one of those apps and you are on twitter.

Desktop App:
Destroy Twitter
TweetDeck
Seesmic Desktop
PeopleBrowsr

MAC Apps:
MAC Lounge
Nambu
Tweetie
TwitterPod

Mobile/iPhone Apps:
Snaptu
Gravity
Dabr

Social Gaming

Once upon a time gaming was just you playing alone with your Atari or getting few friends at your place and playing 2 player games and battling against each other, laughing and shouting and giving advices on what to do and what not to do. Zoom to 2009 the gaming has changed so much that now everyone from 10 year old kid with internet access and grandparents who know PC enough are addicted to gaming.
Now it is called Social Gaming..but you do not meet your friends over the weekend but play with them the whole week and never think of calling them....send them gifts, ask for coins, help them in clearing their farm....

The thing which started the whole Social Gaming was Mafia Wars on Facebook click here for the link which you have to add your friends into your Mafia and kick other people butt...

 
create properties, buy weapons/armory/bonuses and create your own inventory and vault it...

But first came in Zyngas Texas Holdem Poker which is clocking over more than Million Users playing regularly.

You will now say what has this Poker done?
First of all, you can bet in as much as you want and don’t be afraid of losing your real money and still get a high by winning virtual money.
Second , be on top of the list on who is the boss in your friends list most money
Now they have taken the Poker into another level , adding a social element where you increase your level for every hand you play. Post your best on the facebook homepage….

Then they came out with a masterstroke, doing not any gaming could do before getting a big female net audience into gaming by creating Farmville…Farmville, yes Farmville where you have to create your own farm and make it big by plowing and seeding and harvesting by just clicking the mouse buttons.

Sow Sunflower, Strawberries, Tomatoes etc etc also create your own farm by buying Cows, ducks, sheep’s etc. Also purchase trees like cherry, bananas, avocados. Buy your own cottages, tree houses I mean hell they keep on adding new things every week.

So this is all about Social Gaming and now every company wants to do make sure people keep on coming by giving them new things all the time.

Current Rage on Facebook

Now first thing people ask just before leaving is are you FACEBOOK, well only a few percent of urban crowd are not there on FB, some just create a login and don't do much after first few days coz it is very confusing.

But the recent rage going on in FaceBook is FarmVille and Mafia Wars these two games have captured the imagination of most of the player. Not only their viral marketing is superb as you keep keep getting updates on what your friend is doing, who he killed, what they grew and also the colour makes you just click on it and check out what the fad is about.

But these are so addictive at one point if you are a working professional and access to FB in office then it is guaranteed that you might lose few productive hours into it.

All in all an awesome concept changed how FB works.