Twitter And A Mobile Phone

Tweet, Twitter and Your Mobile Phone

Twitter has not been around all that long but it has sure made a name for itself in a hurry. Free social networking tools and applications like Twitter are part of the new business model on the Web where for the end user it almost seems to good to be true. Like Facebook, membership is free and there are no costs associated with using Twitter itself from the website. However, the great thing about twitter is you can update your page from your mobile phone using SMS or text messaging. So if you pay per message or have an expensive text messaging plan things could add up.

To get started visit twitter.com and create an account. You can enable mobile updates by adding your mobile phone number and enabling updates under settings. Twitter only allows you 140 characters per post or per ‘tweet’ as some are calling it. This keeps things simple and make sense when you think about the SMS limit on your phone. Similar to Facebook’s friends for Twitter are followers. You can follow other Twitter account members or they can follow you. If someone is following you they can choose to be updated on their Twitter account everytime you post or tweet. This system works well for keeping groups updated on ones events. Let’s say you are running late for meeting up with the guys or gals to shoot hoops. You send a tweet via a text message saying your car wouldn’t start and you’ll be there 15 minutes late. Everyone gets an update from their Twitter to their mobile phone and the day is saved!

Smart phone work even better with Twitter. There are mobile applications that put a mini-Twitter on your phone enabling even more functionality of Twitter. Remember though Twitter is useable as a Web application on its own. You can log into your Twitter account via the Web and post from there. Using Twitter this way however loses the reason why it is unique over other Web based forms of communication or social networking. In other words, why not just email someone…