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Didn’t You Hear asks “Twitter needs rules?”.

Twitter doesn’t need rules. I’ve said it before, Twitter is a tool, use it however you like. Whatever makes sense for you and your friends is how you should use Twitter. Over time I’m sure etiquette guidelines will evolve and people will begin to emulate what the most popular people on Twitter are doing with it.

I have to agree with this article that this isn’t Instant Messaging, but at the same time, It’s IM on steroids. It’s not email, it’s not IRC, it’s not any of those things and yet it’s all of them.

I’ll have more thoughts on this in a longer post coming up. In the mean time though, this article did have some decent tips:

# Remember that your tweets go out to each one of your Twitter friends. Tailor your message to the media, and your friends will thank you.
# Remember to check other’s tweets. Twitter isn’t supposed to be your own personal soapbox, so make sure you are involved in your entire community.
# Twitter is new, and like all new technologies, there is a time when everything is being sorted out and the rules are being established. Try new things and see what works, because it may just change the way you think about communication (or it may not, but you’ll never know until you try).

I’d add one tip to that list: beware - twitter is addictive! In a totally good way, of course.

Technorati Tags: Twitter

More than a few people have been calling Twitter Microblogging and just as many disagree. I just stumbled upon this, for example:

Let me ask a few questions:

1. Is sending a group AIM to folks microblogging?

2. Is sending a group email microblogging?

3. Is sending a group SMS microblogging?

My guess is that many would say items 1-3 do not fit microblogging. Why not? They are all messaging mediums that allow folks to update people just as quickly as using Twitter.

source: A Billian Miles

I agree and disagree with the idea that Twitter is microblogging. The truth is, it’s whatever you use it for. It’s a tool and no one can tell you how to use a tool, especially a publishing tool. Sure, there might be some expected ways it would be used, but the real tipping point in an online tool or application is when people start doing things with it that it was never intended for. Many would argue that Wordpress is a blog publishing tool, and that’s what Matt and the gang at Automatic designed it as. But over time people started using it as a CMS and now they are adding more and more features to it to support that use.

Twitter is a tool. If you want to use it as group IM/SMS - it works for that. If you want to use it to “microblog”, I’m sure the folks at Obvious would love for you to use it that way. Bottom line, as long as you aren’t violating the terms of service, use it how you like.

Technorati Tags: Twitter, Microblogging