ResearchNOTES
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October 2008
Have you heard about Twitter?

When I heard that that NASA used Twitter to break the news of the discovery of what appeared to be water ice on Mars, and the Los Angeles Fire Department put the technology to use during the October 2007 California wildfires, I decided to check out this online networking tool. Found at www.twitter.com, Twitter lets friends, family members and business associates track each other's whereabouts – and as you can see it's not just for teens. Twitter is being used for business networking and sharing bits of information on the fly. In fact, it's actually fun – even for this baby-boomer – and I'm intrigued by its possibilities. In this month's ResearchNOTES, I offer a few sites for discovering Twitter, and what you can do with it...

For a brief introduction to Twitter, including what it is, how to sign up, and sending and receiving tweets, go to Jennifer Laycock's post on the Search Engine Guide Blog at http://snipurl.com/4fgrn. And I love that she compares Twitter to Post-it notes at http://snipurl.com/4fh98.

Blogger Caroline Middlebrook has written The Big Juicy Twitter Guide, which can be found at http://snipurl.com/4kxgl. Learn about Twitter etiquette, uses, tools and Web applications.

Interested in business uses for Twitter? Head to the Duct Tape Marketing blog and download their Beginner's Guide to Using Twitter for Business. It's at http://snipurl.com/3hp83.

Are you Twittering? Tell me about it – how you're using it, how it's working for you and any tips you have for beginners. I'll post a compilation of comments on my blog at www.MarcyPhelps.com.

See you next month -- Marcy