The last few years have seen an explosion of social media storm the world of cyber space. These days it seems you can’t get online without stumbling upon some sort of new social media that is being hyped up. Many of them come and go before you are even in on them and many more, like Instagram, are bought by out by use from other companies like Facebook. Here are a few of the more common sites.
Twitter has emerged as one of the top social media forms in the last few years. Twitter lets you broadcast Tweets, or messages, of 140 characters or less. You can also attach a hash tag to categorize your Tweet. Anyone searching for that hash tag will then see your Tweets. For instance, you might love movies and want to Tweet “I loved the Dark Knight Rises” and use the tag #movies (the pound symbol marks a tag.) Anyone who searches that tag will see your tweet. If they like you they can they follow you and vice versa.
It works the other way around as well. If you want to shop for used cars using twitter you can do a search for #usedcars and anyone else with that tag will show up. So say a car dealer was selling used cars, you could see their tweet and contact them. Their Twitter home page can have links to their website and a short bio about them.
One of the best things about Twitter is that it is a great way to meet niche and industry people, especially bloggers. If you love music (who doesn’t?) you can then add the #music to your tweets. This will let you reach other music lovers and the two of you can communicate about new artists or songs you like. It is also a great to find people to collaborate on a creative project or even promote your own. In fact, now there are actual Tweet Ups, where followers and Twitter friends will meet up to hang out discuss whatever they may be into. I am still waiting for the first Twitter marriage to take place so they can call each other Tweet hearts
Another fun thing about Twitter is you can follow your favorite celebrities. While they probably won’t follow you back, they are constantly Tweeting and may even respond to one of your Tweets! Comedians are always Tweeting one liners while artists will Tweet about their latest projects. Actors will Tweet about where they are and what they are doing. It is a good way get a glimpse into their fascinating lives
Business will often use viral campaigns to promote their projects via Twitter. For example, one year at Comic-Con the hit TV show Dexter let you sign up to follow #Dexter and throughout the convention they would Tweet clues that you could follow. These clues would eventually lead to a booth they had set up giving away Dexter swag!
Jeff Jordan lives in California and writes about cars, social media and education. Used car dealerships are another industry that can benifit from Twitter.
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