Put @RedCross in your Twitter

What is Twitter? I feel that Twitter is still defining itself. Essentially, Twitter is an ongoing chat designed to be easily accessible from your cell phone via SMS which is why messages have a 140 character limit. The limit also forces you to be concise in your thought. Twitter puts us closer to people of importance or influence in our lives. (That’s not a Joe Biden endorsement..just showing that you can get a message to Joe Biden via Twitter easier than a phone call) Several other presidential candidates are using Twitter. The shakers and movers in the tech industry are using Twitter and I have been able to interact with a couple of people that otherwise would have remained "that famous person on the stage at the tradeshow." Today I even cracked a joke at Wil Wheaton in response to his tweet although I doubt he saw it. There is still some debate about whether or not a person receives your @ message if they are not following you. I say yes as long as the @ is the first character. You cannot direct message someone unless they are following you.

So why add RedCross? Because it is another way to make sure emergency information is getting into people’s hands as rapidly as possible. They are even using Twitter to add people to a searchable database showing you are safe and well!

Send ‘D safeandwell FIRSTNAME LASTNAME #### STREET CITY STATE ZIP CELLPHONE’ and a brief note about how you are. We’ll enter you in.

about 12 hours ago from web

Check out Safe&Well: https://disastersafe.redcro… – and *make sure* all your friends and family include it in their disaster plans. about 12 hours ago from web

I think Twitterers will fall into one or more of three types:

1. Exhibitionists, Voyeurs, Gossips – These are the folks that will send/read a stream of messages about the minutia of daily life
2. News feeds – These are the folks alerting the world about their experiences with the California fires, or the next big event. These are the newspapers getting the headlines out. These are people like myself alerting others that the Interstate is at a stand still.
3. Topic Specific – These would be people sharing information about a particular subject. Unlike news feeds these will often include back and forth discussions about the topic.
   I originally had this one listed as "Techies" because that is what I do: Techies – These are the people sharing links to events in the technical world. Unlike a news feed, these will often include back and forth discussions on the ins and outs of technical issues.
4. [added November 10, 2008] Spammers – People taking advantage of the tendency to follow those who follow you simply to draw attention to a product or website. The Twitter staff and others are trying to minimize the ability for people to spam through Twitter.
5. [added November 10, 2008] Utility – such as how The RedCross has used Twitter to make accessing the Safe and Well database easier.

I suppose I should include a 4th classification "self-promoters/spammers" which would be people that use Twitter exclusively for trying to drive traffic to their sites. Twitter can drive traffic!