Welcome To The Twitter Resource

Call it social networking or micro-blogging, Twitter is an extremely popular real-time social messaging service. In this resource section we outline the Twitter service, include suggestions of tools and services to enhance your Twitter experience, highlight views and opinions of Twitter from around the web-o-sphere, and talk about the Twitter development API and the technology around it.

Remember to send a tweet and say hello if you see me on Twitter (@jasonslater).

Contents

• What is Twitter?
• Twitter History
• Getting The Most Out Of Twitter
• Understanding #followfriday
• Understanding Twitter Terminology
• Maximising Productivity With Twitter  – tools and utilities for Twitter
• Over 1,000 Other Tools, Services, and Solutions Recommendations For Twitter
• Views and Opinions of Twitter
• Other Twitter Resources
• Twitter API (Development)
• Celebrities and Well Known Figures Using Twitter
• CommonCraft Introduction to Twitter
• Twitter Humour
• CrunchBase Twitter Widget

What is Twitter?

The majority of Internet going people will have heard of Twitter by now, thanks to its success on the social networking scene. Twitter is a website that allows you to post updates to the Internet, telling people what you are doing or thinking at any particular time. But you only get 140 characters to do it in. You can tweet using instant message, SMS (where available), using a client, or the web interface.

Twitter is being used for a myriad of reasons. Some people use it to stay in touch with friends and family in a novel and interesting way, thinking of it as messaging meets micro-blogging. Others, meanwhile, are taking advantage of the opportunity to build a following that will benefit them and their business. You can let your followers know when you publish a new blog post, update your website or have a new product for sale, for example.

Twitter started life in March 2006, initially intended to be a research project; no one could have expected that it would hit the headlines and win awards in the way that it has.

The idea for Twitter can largely be attributed to four people – businessman Jack Dorsey, computer specialist and businessman Biz Stone, entrepreneur Evan Williams and Noah Glass, who lists his occupation as a ‘maker of companies’ on Blogger. Their combined talents in these fields have made Twitter into a true phenomenon that is still gathering pace.

The basic idea may have been to give people a way to stay in touch with what their friends and family are getting up to, but it has developed beyond all measure. There are many celebrities and well known people getting in on the act now; even Barack Obama (or his aides) used the site to help promote his attempt to become the President of the USA.

What made Twitter stand out from all the other social networking sites was the simplicity of what it offered. It’s possible to start following hundreds if not thousands of other people on Twitter, and yet you still have control over how many ‘tweets’ (updates) you read from each person. There is never any danger of becoming overwhelmed since you are always in the driving seat.

Here are some of the key features you can look forward to when you join Twitter:

• Send and receive direct messages if you are in contact with someone, to allow for more privacy
• Reply directly to a message instead of just ‘tweeting’; and you can check your own replies to keep in touch with conversations
• Create a personal profile to tell people who you are and what you do
• Add a personal picture to aid recognition among followers
• Add your own background picture to your page; this can help you promote your business

Needless to say a strong community has sprung up around Twitter. You can search for other users who have the same interests as you, using both the Twitter search facility and other third party websites too. In short, it’s one of the best ways to get connected with people who like the same things as you, and operate in similar business circles.

One of the greatest strengths of Twitter is its simplicity. Once you have signed up for your free account you can start using the service immediately. Using a maximum of 140 text based characters, per message, you can communicate (“tweet”) facts, figures, thoughts, or your inner most feelings and share them with friends, or the world. Think of it a bit like texting to the world. You can build up networks (“follow” or get “followed”) with like minded people, touch shoulders with celebrities, micro-blog, share ideas and experiences or just have a good natter.

Your tweets appear on your profile page together with those of anyone you choose to “follow” and you can customise your profile page with your own background, profile picture and set of colours. Your tweets also appear in the public timeline unless you choose to opt out (from your settings page).

• You can read more about Twitter on their homepage at www.twitter.com.
• Wiki also have a useful outline of the service at their site, Wikipedia: Twitter.
• See the Common Craft introduction to video at the end of this page.
• cNet on Newbie’s guide to Twitter
• Read Caroline Middlebrook on “The Big Juicy Twitter Guide”.
• Official Twitter blog at blog.twitter.com/
• Twitter Fan Wiki at twitter.pbwiki.com/
• Dosh Dosh on 17 Ways You Can Use Twitter: A Guide for Beginners, Marketers and Business Owners
• How to Twitter: why the world is Twitter crazy at Telegraph.co.uk

Getting The Most Out Of Twitter

When you have signed up to Twitter you may be wondering what to do next. The best thing is to type something in – say hello. Next, make sure you fill out your profile, to help people find you, by going into Settings (located at the top right). On the Settings page you will find six sections:

• Account – Here you will set up your username, real name, email address, home page web address (if you have one), time zone, language and location.
  • Your username is important as it defines you Twitter web address which will be in the form http://www.twitter.com/username
  • An important thing to do in this section is to fill in your online bio – include your hobbies and interests so like minded people can find you.
  • If you want to opt out of the public time line and only allow people you authorise to “follow” you (see your tweets) you can set the “Protect my updates” checkbox.
• Password – You can set and change your password here.
  • Choose a strong password and change it regularly to ensure no one can easily compromise your account
  • Remember, do not use anything in your password that you might “tweet”, e.g. pet name, favourite holiday destination
• Devices – Tweet by Phone
  • If you want receive Twitters by mobile phone you can set it up here (though charges may apply)
  • You can also send tweets from your mobile phone (see the numbers in the Twitter resource section) – again charges may apply
• Notices – Choose how to be notified by Twitter
  • You can be prompted to make a tweet should you forget to do it regularly (set the Auto nudge)
  • Choose which replies to your tweets you want to see (All replies, replies to people you are following, or no replies)
  • You can also choose to be notified by email of new followers or new direct messages
  • You can opt to receive the newsletter by email
• Picture – Choose a picture to represent you and your account – this is often known as an Avatar
  • There are file size and file type restrictions here
  • Your uploaded picture may get cropped to fit
• Design – Customise your Twitter profile page. You can choose one of the preset Themes or set up your own
  • You can upload your own background image (file size and file type restrictions apply)
  • You can change various colours of text, boxes and backgrounds (you can choose colours from a colour wheel or type in the hex code directly if you know it)

Check out the extensive Twitter help section.

Understanding  #followfriday

When you start using Twitter regularly you may frequently notice a tweet that includes the hash tag #followfriday. Follow Friday takes place, surprisingly enough, every Friday and it is an opportunity to let everyone know about people whose Tweets you like – a bit of Twitter Love for good Twitterers if you like.

Twitter History

Twitter may be becoming a global phenomenon but, according to Jack Dorsey, it all started with humble beginnings as an idea in the head of Jack Dorsey, back in July 2000. The idea emerged from Jack thinking about how to make a more real time implementation of the combination of ideas from the LiveJournal platform and the AIM status window.

The original name for Twitter, on a sketch pad drawing was stat.us, which later evolved into twttr then later onto Twitter.

Early development of Twitter would use Ruby and Rails and the web application framework, with never more than three developers at any one time.

It took six years of pondering, experimentation for the idea of Twitter to more fully emerge and take a form we are familiar with today – Jack thanks Odeo, a pod casting company, for providing the creative environment in which the idea would develop. You can see the original sketch pad drawing on Jack Dorsey’s Flickr page.

In 2006 Twitter was highlighted in the San Fransisco Chronicle as a ‘Cool Web 2.0′ websites. The SF Chronicle mentioned a potential Twitter competitor, Dodgeball, bought by Google. Dodgeball?

The company Obvious, LLC was formed, around October 2006, with Biz Stone, Entepreneur Evan Williams (founder of Blogger), and a number of people from Odeo to work on a number of products, including Odeo and another product which would become Twitter. By mid 2007 so much focus was being placed on Twitter that the Odeo product lost some its focus so the team looked to find a new loving parent who would take on Odeo and allow the team to focus more fully on Twitter itself. At that time Odea was holding a database of three million MP3s and was experiencing millions of page views per month.

Alex and Britt gave a presentation on scaling Twitter at the 2007 Rails Conference

Growth was slow for Twitter in the early days, however things started moving along and in 18 April 2007, Twitter, Inc. was born. This was something of a legal technicality as Twitter was now pretty much the only product Obvious were working on. Jack Dorsey became the CEO of Twitter, Inc. and Evan Williams received the title of Co-Founder.

In March 2007 Twitter won the SXSW Web Awards and made it into the Alexa Movers and Shakers List. Twitter also made i into Time as one of the best websites of 2007.

As Twitter gained pace things started to move along quite quickly for Twitter and by the end of 2008 Twitter had become something of a global phenomenon.

Understanding Twitter Terminology

As Twitter has gained in popularity, so too have the musings and terminology around it. However, Twitter is not just another networking site. It has a language all its own. For new members it might seem difficult to understand what is going on, but it does not take long to start ‘getting it’ – keep at it and the penny will twop.

For example, if you use Twitter, it makes you a twit. Not in a detrimental way; twits are the people who use the social networking website. Each 140 character (or fewer) message you send is called a tweet. Some people may say they have been ‘tweeting all day’, which means they have been sending regular messages.

And who are the masses who use Twitter? They are called tweeple. Similarly you may also see people starting the day with a message which says ‘Morning tweeps!’ Perhaps calling everyone ‘twits’ in this case would be seen as too rude?

During the course of your time with Twitter, you may come across messages you want to send to others. Let us suppose someone provides a good web link which would be excellent for your followers. You would ‘retweet’ it. This is done by prefixing your message will the letters RT (retweet) and then the username of the person who originally tweeted it, followed by the message they originally tweeted (the username should be typed in this manner – @username). People can then click on the username to find out more about them.

You may also commonly hear about the world of Twitter being referred to as the Twitterverse. According to figures this is getting bigger by the day, and there are lots of Twitterholics among those numbers. These are people who cannot get enough of Twitter, as you might expect.

Finally one of the less well known terms has been seen to refer to people who use the site merely to spam others with their offerings. Such spammers are known in some circles as Twammers, which does have a nice ring to it.

Some other terminology you may find useful:

• tweet – a 140 character message sent using Twitter
• hashtag – a method for following topics, the topic is prefixed with a hash symbol
  
  (check out some hashtags on http://www.hashdictionary.com/)
• RT – a tweet sent out echoing someone else’s Tweet – RT stands for ReTweet
• twypo – a mis-spelled word in Twitter
• twittiquette – a play on the word ettiquette referring to generally acceptable behaviour on Twitter
• twittervision – a geographic interpretation of Twitter tweets

A Wiki project to track Twitter terminology can be found on Twictionary at http://twictionary.pbwiki.com/

Maximising Productivity With Twitter

Once you really start using Twitter you may want to look at ways of enhancing your experience. Fortunately, a number of useful tools and services are available to enhance your Twitter experience.

Interesting Ways To View Tweets on Twitter

• TweetPortal – “tweet-based information in a variety of logical categories”
• Geoheartbeat.com – “Geoheartbeat.com is where Google Maps meets Twitter”
• Twittearh – “live Twitt’s all over the world.”
• Twitscoop – “Twitscoop was built to help you stay on top of twitter’s hot topics or discussions.”
• TwitterThoughts – “TwitterThoughts creates charts based on Twitter tweets”
• Twitterfall – “Twitterfall is a way of viewing the latest ‘tweets’ of upcoming trends and custom searches”
• Monitter – “Web-based tool allowing anyone to monitor Twitter in real-time for any words they choose.”
• SXSW 2009 Twitter Visualiser – “Twitter Visualiser”
• Twitter StreamGraphs – “A StreamGraph is shown for the latest 1000 tweets which contain the search word.”
• Twittervision – “A real-time geographic visualization of posts to Twitter.”
• Twittervision 3D – “3D view of Twittervision”
• Twistori Desktop Edition – “beautiful twitter exploration software for OS X”
• KipFolio Widget – “Handy Twitter Kip for KipFolio users.”
• Twitter in Colors – “An interesting student project to visualise a users tweets”
• Tidy Tweet – “TidyTweet helps keep your Twitter feed free from inappropriate language, users, and content.”

Twitter Statistics and Tracking

• Twitterholic.com – “A few times a day, we calculate individual statistics for each twittering twit in our database.”
• TweetStats – “Graph your Twitter Stats including Tweets per hour, Tweets per month, Tweet timeline, Reply statistics”
• TwitterCounter.com – “TwitterCounter Stats: The Ultimate Twitter Statistics Provider!”
• Twitt(url)y – “Twitturly is a service for tracking what URLs people are talking about as they talk about them on Twitter”
• Twitemperature – “Twitemperature is a gauge telling you whether you’re hot or cold on today’s topics of concern.”
• TwitterBuzz – “Shows the most popular links on Twitter”

Finding Information Using Twitter

• Twitter Search – “Search Twitter in realtime – see what the world is doing right now.”
• Twitter Local – “Adobe AIR based application that allows you to filter Tweets by location.”

Twitter Profile Backgrounds

• TwitArt – “Get a custom designed, one-of-a-kind Twitter background, custom avatar, or both—for one low price!”
• Twitter–Backgrounds – “Free backgrounds for your Twitter profile.”
• Tweetstyle – “Browse our free Twitter backgrounds and other resources or get a custom Twitter background of your own.”
• Custom Twitter Background – “Make a Statement and Stand Out with a Custom Designed Twitter Background”
• Twitter Backgrounds – “TwitterBackgroundImages.com is an excellent place to download free images from a huge collection of wallpapers, for use as a Twitter background”
• Pretty Tweet – “Create a FREE Twitter Background with our Visual Designer”
• Twitter Backs – “Ready to get a better Twitter background going? Go ahead and download the files below and construct your own Twitter background.”
• Twitbacks – “Create your own Twitter background with your branding – Free.”
• My Tweet Space – “MyTweetSpace.com offers Twitter Users a way to brand their Twitter Profile without having any creative know how at all.”
• Twitter Image – “Custom Twitter backgrounds. Take advantage of the marketing benefits a custom Twitter background can provide.”
• KillerTweets – “Incredible designers. Amazing Twitter backgrounds. Low price. What else do you need?”

Twitter Friends and Followers

• Who Should i Follow?
• Twitter Twerp Scan – “Are you followers just trying to get followed?”
• Friend Or Follow
• My Tweeple – “make informed decisions when it comes to following people on Twitter.”
• Twitter Karma – “Learn more about your Twitter friends”
• TwitterWho – “Batch People Search For Twitter”
• TwitterPacks – “Arranging Twitterers by interests, location, and other topics”
• TweetWheel – “Find out which of your Twitter friends know each other!”
• Twitter100 – “See all your Twitter followers, with their latest Tweet, all on one screen”
• Mr. Tweet – “Your Personal Networking Assistant for Twitter”
• Twits Like Me – “Enter your Twitter screenname to find other twitterers who probably share your interests”
• CrowdStatus – “Create your own crowd with Twitter”
• Twubble – “Twubble is a Twitter extension which helps you find more friends.”
• Huitter Mutuality – “A simple service which allow you to make bulk operations with your account”

Extensions For Twitter

• TwitPic
• Twitter Search (previously Summize)
• TwitterFeed
• TwTPoll
• Twittercal
• Twitturl
• My Twitter Notebook – “My Twitter Notebook is a place for you to collect notes for yourself.”
• twit.pix.ly – “Twitter Avatar Combat”
• twessenger 2.0 – “a twitter add-in for Windows Live Messenger.”

Clients and Other Ways To Tweet on Twitter

• TweetDeck

  Read our review: TweetDeck – Making Twitter Easier To Use

• TweetLater
• Pwytter – “The free muti-platform Twitter client written in Python”
• Teletwitter – “Twitter client for Windows”
• Twuffer – “Twuffer allows the Twitter user to compose a list of future tweets, and schedule their release.”
• Twittermail
• BeTwittered
• Twhirl
• SecretTweet – “Post your secrets anonymously to Twitter”
• TwitterBox – “A second life client for Twitter“
• MoTwit for Palm OS
• Lounge – “Lounge – Mac Twitter Client”
• Nambu – “Nambu Touch for the iPhone”
• OutTwit – “Use Twitter directly from Outlook”
• Quakk – “Quakk is an Open Source Windows Mobile Twitter Application”

Twitter Alerts

• TweetBeep

Customising Twitter

• Twitter Backgrounds Gallery
• Tweeterized TwitterSig

Over 1,000 Other Tools, Services, and Solutions Recommendations For Twitter

• Some Handy Twitter Websites!
• Twittermania: 140+ More Twitter Tools!
• WordPress › Twitter Tools « WordPress Plugins
• My Essential Twitter Tools
• 30+ Very Useful Twitter Tools You Must Be Aware Of | SEOptimise
• Top 12 Twitter tools – Network World
• Five Twitter Tools We Love
• 8 Cool Twitter Tools | Compiler from Wired.com
• Top 40 Twitter Tools
• Five New Twitter Tools You Should Know | Online Marketing Blog
• 10 Twitter tools | Econsultancy
• 10 Best Twitter Tools for WordPress Blogs
• Quite Useful – 5 New Noteworthy Twitter Tools
• 47 Awesome Twitter Tools You Should be Using | deontée.com
• 25+ Incredibly Useful Twitter Tools and Firefox Plugins
• Digg – 20 Great Twitter Tools for Firefox
• 100 Twitter Tools | OpenJason
• best 100 Twitter tools
• The 100 Most Popular Twitter applications | blending the mix
• 29 Twitter Tools | I’ve Been Thinking About This…
• 23 Twitter Plugins for WordPress | Web 2.0
• 110+ Best Twitter Tools | TechnoBuzz.net
• 130+ productivity links for twitter addicts
• 10 Great Twitter Tools – PC World
• 8 Useful Twitter Tools For 2009 On Your Desktop, Web Browser …
• 10 Free Must Have Twitter Tools | Cardeo Design Blog
• 14 Tools of Highly Effective Twitter Users – Kenny Hyder – Oli Shaw

If you have a Twitter tool or service you would like to share here please let me know at twittertools @ jasonslater.co.uk (remember to remove the spaces either side of the @).

Views and Opinions of Twitter

From This Blog

Articles about Twitter from Jason Slater Technology Blog

• TweetDeck – Making Twitter Easier To Use
• 10 More Productivity Tools For Twitter
• Is Twitter the new Id?
• 10 Must Have Productivity Tools For Twitter

From News Sites

Articles about Twitter from other sites around the webosphere

• BBC News: Comedy Twitter feed lands TV deal (11th November 2009)
• SourceWire: Twitter-LinkedIn Deal Signals Deeper Corporate Social Media Integration (11th November 2009)
• Times Online: Fry quits Twitter (and then comes back again) by Mary Bowers (2nd November 2009)
• BBC News: Twitter ‘costs businesses £1.4bn’ (26th October 2009)
• Guardian: Twitter announces deals with Microsoft and Google on same day by Charles Arthur (22nd October 2009)
• Apple: Twitter. Triumph of humanity.
• Telegraph: Apple in talks to buy Twitter for $700m by Emma Barnett (5th May 2009)
• Register: Twitter breach gives behind-the-scenes Obama peek by Dan Goodin (30th April 2009)
• Nielsen: Twitter Quitters Post Roadblock to Long-Term Growth by David Martin (28th April 2009)
• Telegraph: UK publishing companies take up Twitter by Hannah Waldram (16th April 2009)
• Gawker: Twitter Meets Mass Hysteria by Clay Shirky (15th April 2009)
• Register: Twitter overrun by weekend of powerful worm attacks by Dan Goodin (13th April 2009)
• Bloomberg: Twitter Chatter Has Captain Kirk, Dell Tweeting for Revenue by Joseph Galante (3rd April 2009)
• Washington Post: Twitter To Kill Off The Auto-Follow by Jason Kincaid (31st March 2009)
• Macworld: A trio of Twitter tool betas by Scott McNulty (31st March 2009)
• PC World: Get Your Degree in Twitter by Carie-Ann Skinner (31st March 2009)
• CNN: Is Twitter’s breakneck growth causing a backlash? by John D. Sutter (31st March 2009)
• FOXBusiness: Adventure Girl Enters Twitter Top 100 in Just ONE Month (31st March 2009)
• Washington Post: Tinker Gives Twitter Its Long Awaited Events Firehose by Jason Kincaid (30th March 2009)
• CNET News: Twitter tweaks replies, hires ex-Google designer by Josh Lowensohn (30th March 2009)
• Reuters UK: Twitter invites all shades of green by Tiffany Wu (26th March 2009)
• Times Online: Twitter to offer commercial ‘paid-for’ accounts by Murad Ahmed (26th March 2009)
• Computing: Primary school pupils to learn Twitter by Tom Young (25th March 2009)
• Telegraph: Twitter’s potential overlooked by UK technology companies, says report by Nick Britten (25th March 2009)
• WSJ: Twitter, Seeking Revenue, Launches Microsoft-Sponsored Site by Nat Worden (25th March 2009)
• BBC News: Primary pupils ‘study Twitter’ (25th March 2009)
• Guardian: Twitter introduces text ads by Jemima Kiss (24th March 2009)
• MSNBC: Twitter gets you fired in 140 characters or less by Helen A.S. Popkin (23rd March 2009)
• IT World: How and Why to Launch a Business Presence on Twitter by C.G. Lynch (16th March 2009)
• Jakarta Post: Personal Technology: Is Twitter the future of news? by Jeremy Wagstaff (16th March 2009)
• Telegraph: Juror ‘tweeted’ on Twitter during trial by Tom Leonard (16 March 2009)
• New York Times: Phoning It In on Twitter by Roy Furchgott (9 March 2009)
• New York Times: On Twitter, Every Night Is Open Mic Night by Paul Boutin (9 March 2009)
• NECN: Using Twitter to follow the latest news by Ted McEnro (9 March 2009)
• Examiner: To Twitter or Not To Twitter That is the Question by Dr. Barry Miller (8 March 2009)
• CNET News: Podcast: iPhone Apps lets you speak SMS & Twitter messages by Larry Magid (2 March 2009)
• CNET News: Fred Wilson shows off integrated Twitter Search, featured users by Harrison Hoffman (1 March 2009)
• SeattlePI: On Twitter, no one can hear you scream by Regina Hackett (1 March 2009)
• BusinessWeek: Facebook’s Thiel Explains Failed Twitter Takeover by Spencer E. Ante (1 March 2009)
• Computerworld: Google goes Twittering by Seth H. Weintraub (1 March 2009)
• BBC News: Making money on a social network by Dave Lee (27 February 2009)
• Guardian: Twitter ye not by Chris Salmon (13 Feb 2009)
• Guardian: US congressman in row over use of Twitter during Baghdad trip by Bobbie Johnson (12 February 2009)
• PC Magazine: Whatcha Doing? Twitter, Other Status Tools on Rise by Chloe Albanesius (12 February 2009)
• Mashable: Shakespeare And Twitter Make an Odd Couple by Stan Schroeder (12 February 2009)
• VNUNet: Twitter gets easier to follow by Rosalie Marshall (12 February 2009)
• Economist: Politicians on Twitter Tweeting the people (12 February 2009)
• Television Week: 11% of Online Americans Now Using Twitter by Daisy Whitney (12 February 2009)
• Computer Weekly: Twitter: what is in it for IT professionals? by Rebecca Thomson (12 February 2009)
• IT Pro: The Glitter Of Twitter by Jason Slater (11 February 2009)
• Monk And His I.T. Junk Cartoon Panel: Twitter Trouble
• Spectator: All of a Twitter by Rory Sutherland (11 February 2009)
• New York Times: Twitter? It’s What You Make It by David Pogue (11 February 2009)
• AFP: NASA scoops up Twitter award for Mars ‘tweets’
• Telegraph: Twitter to charge companies for using service by Claudine Beaumont (10 February 2009)
• Computer World: Twitter Etiquette: Five Dos and Don’ts by CG Lynch (10 February 2009)
• IT Pro: A beginner’s guide to Twitter for business by Asavin Wattanajantra (4 February 2009)
• BBC News: Tweet smell of success over Digg (22 January 2009)
• CNET: 6 services that help you find, follow friends on Twitter by Don Reisinger (6 January 2009)
• New York Times: Link By Link All a-Twitter About Stars Who Tweet by Noam Cohen (4 January 2009)
• BBC Panorama: What is Twitter? (2 December 2008)
• Guardian: "Making the most of Twitter" by Charles Arthur (8 May 2008)
• JachMyers.com Twitter: Exclusive Interview with Twitter Co-Founder Biz Stone by Jerry Weinstein (23 May 2007)

From The Blogs

Articles about Twitter from Bloggers

• Harvard Economist Blames Twitter for Down Economy – Gaebler.com
• What I Know About Twitter – Technologizer
• How to Locate Local Twitter Tweeters – Chris Pirillo
• The Twitter Followholic: An Epidemic – Mashable
• HOW TO: Find a Job on Twitter – Mashable
• Top 237 Twitter Users Who Will Follow You Back – Social News Watch
• Top Twitter searches revealed – Bluehalo
• Copyright and Twitter – The Blog Herald
• Yo Tweeps! Check Headup on Twitter… headup
• How We Use Twitter for Journalism – ReadWriteWeb
• Twitter Search Moves Forward – Marketing Pilgrim
• How to Create Twitter Background – Creative Wisdom
• “Twitter Means Business”: Minnesota case studies, and more - Pistachio

Other Twitter Resources

• Crunchbase: Twitter
• Official Twitter Blog
• Your guide to micro-blogging and twitter
• Twitter Handbook Blog

Twitter API (Development)

Twitter make available interfaces to the Twitter service allowing developers to utilise, adapt, and extend parts of the service in new applications – this is via the Twitter API (Application Programming Interface) at http://apiwiki.twitter.com/.

Celebrities and Well Known Figures Using Twitter

Celebrities and other well known figures are realising the value of Twitter and leveraging it (with different degrees of success) successfully to connect with their fans and followers.

• Barack Obama: @BarackObama
• Stephen Fry: @stephenfry
• Jonathan Ross: @Wossy
• John Cleese: @JohnCleese
• Robert Llewellyn: @bobbyllew
• Maggie Philbin: @maggiephilbin
• Jeremy Clarkson: @Jeremy_Clarkson
• Philip Schofield: @Schofe
• Phil Jupitus: @jupitusphillip
• Fearne Cotton: @fearnecotton
• Chris Moyles: @chrisdjmoyles
• Jason Bradbury: @JasonBradbury
• James May: @RealJamesMay
• Richard Herring: @Herring1967
• Ashton Kutcher: @aplusk

CommonCraft Introduction to Twitter

Twitter Humour

CrunchBase Twitter Widget

 

Twitter Updates

Remember to send a tweet and say hello if you see me on Twitter (@jasonslater).