“Twitter, I don’t get it!” The amount of times I have heard that phrase is too numerous to count, but for those of you out there who “don’t get it” let me shine a little ray of light on the matter!
There are a veritable plethora of networking sites, Facebook, Twitter, foursquare are the ones I use but there are many more, linkedin, myspace, google+, livejournal, tagged the list just goes on and on.
They all offer similar services to their users, it just really depends what your friends use more than anything, but the following little guide is for the layman, of which I’m a proud subscriber!
FACEBOOK is a networking site that lets users create profiles, upload photos, videos, send messages and keep in touch with friends, family and colleagues. The site is available in over 37 different languages. It allows you to see through the “timeline” your life, events and friends all in one place. Keeping up to date with your friends is simple, but with all your details of your life in one place you do have to be careful who you “friend” and how much (as little as possible is best) information you allow the “public” to see, there are great set of security settings available... USE THEM!
TWITTER however is more of a “snap shot” of your (and all other users) life in 140 character “texts”, photos, videos or links. Sharing with the Twitterworld as a whole or individually! The real bonus is you can not only get feedback from friends and family but from all walks of life, and also the stars of stage, screen and sports use it on a daily basis to inform their fans on future appearances and personal observations of life around them! Not to be a name dropper... oh why not... I have exchanged laughs with the great Leslie Phillips (ding dong) and the mega star Warwick Davis (no, apparently not the one in Time Bandits), I even made a friend who sent me a Haggis for Burns Night (delicious!).
FOURSQUARE is new to me but after using it for a while it gets to be fun. The principle is simple, you “check in” to wherever you are, earning points, if you check into somewhere the most, you can get rewards, for example most Wetherspoons pubs offer 20% discount on food to the “mayor” (person who has checked into somewhere the most), you can also add “tips” to places, telling others the best time to order in a restaurant, what discounts a shop offers, even the best places to sit down in London parks. It also informs your friends where you are (if you wish) and has quick settings so you can simultaneously upload your “check in” to Facebook and Twitter!
As with all these type of sites, the more friends you have, the more fun and use you get out of it, even a blog can be fun (if people read it “lol”), for those out there who don’t use them, branding them “dangerous”, each to their own but really, would you walk into a pub handing out your personal and bank details on slips of paper to every Tom, Dick and Harriet... NO... so use the same common sense on line... simples...
I hope this has added a little illumination to the initial statement... “Twitter, I don’t get it!”... maybe now you do, but if you do hear that old worn phrase, steer them to this blog and let them “see the light”...
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