Quinterox

Twitter has been ridiculed by many because of the abundance of trivial tweets that flow through its veins. The truth is that Twitter is a lot more useful than what many of us have come to think or been led to believe by our friends. In this blog post I will explain how to use Twitter for everyday purposes and hopefully show that it is much more than posts like “eating a ham sandwich”.

Before you go on. I will advise you that in order to make the most use of Twitter it is my opinion that it is best to access it via a smartphone. Portability and accessability are key. You will make best of use of Twitter when you have quick access to it and not as much when you have to rush to a computer. Of course a few minutes a few times a day to read a couple of tweets will help too. I find that a lot of the people that use the website are new to the service and usually wind up dropping it because they don’t access it as often and therefore do not get the most they could out of if.

Breaking News

While you indeed have those people that tweet their every move, Twitter can have an actual use in our everyday lives. A real case scenario is, and has been seen used by all of us, the use of Twitter during catastrophes. We’ve all seen CNN, FOX, and the other networks start reading tweets during this important time. The reason is mainly because Twitter can resonate the voice of the people in the disposition in real-time. Way ahead of any news crew. And it is my opinion that the view of someone living it holds way more value than that of someone who’s job is to intrigue you with sensationalism to get good ratings. So while it is a good idea to follow your favorite local news network on Twitter for the latest headlines and links to stories, it is possibly a good idea, to save a search on your Twitter account for the words “earthquake in”, “tsunami in”, or “tsunami in”, as well as keeping an eye on the Twitter trends for anything intriguing. This way surely when you hear someone say something in the office about an earthquake somewhere you can tune to Twitter for info, reactions and links to the story often way faster than doing a Google search.

Following Your Career

Another great way to use Twitter is to follow people whom are important or iconic in your career. For example if you are a designer you might follow a designer you might consider inspiring or interesting or even follow a website that showcases a great artist’s work every day. There are so many possibilities.

So what if you aren’t sure of what person to follow? Well on Twitter there are also Lists of people to follow which are created by users. All it is is a group of people with something in common. It could be Artists, Bloggers, Activists etc. Like following a user you may follow one of these lists if you find one that suits your needs. So how do you find a list to follow? Listorious is just one of a few which can help you find the right list. Also to learn more about lists visit this article on Mashable.

Two more things to keep in mind to help you keep your sanity is that it is okay to not read all the new tweets from the people you follow. Also don’t feel forced to Tweet your every move, doing so might also make you lose interest. Keep yourself informed, keep yourself together.