What is Twitter?

Twitter is a new social networking tool that lets you connect to the people and organizations you are familiar with and trust.

How does it work?

First, you need to create an account at Twitter.com.  Don't worry, it's free.  Once you sign up, you find people or groups you want to "follow".  When you follow other Twitter users, all the messages they post (called "tweets") to their account will show up on your page for you to read.

Get started > you can follow WIVB News 4 by going to www.twitter.com/news4buffalo and clicking the Follow button.  Make sure you have a Twitter account and are signed in first.  You can see some of our recent tweets to the right.

You can also make your own tweets.  Other people can choose to follow you and your messages will appear on their page.

What does WIVB News 4 do on Twitter?

Everyday the News 4 team is working hard Keeping You Connected and one way is by using Twitter.  We use Twitter to send tweets to our Followers about Breaking News, upcoming stories, exclusive features on our website and more.  Can you can talkback to us using Twitter too!

Is Twitter a blog?

Sort of.  But much shorter posts.  Tweets are limited to only 140 characters - which is shorter than a cell phone text message.  That way, you can catch up on who you're following very quickly with just a glance.

What else can I do with Twitter?

Well, you and quickly forward tweets you think are interesting to your Followers to pass along some useful (or just funny or interesting) information.  You can also send messages directly to Twitter users that you Follow to have a private conversation with them via Twitter.

So I have to visit Twitter.com to send and receive tweets?

You can.  But you can also download a ton of free Twitter programs that let you read and post tweets without visiting Twitter's website.  Twitter.com also offers ways that you can receive and post tweets to your cell phone via text messaging.  Or, you can visit Twitter's mobile website on your web-enabled cell phone at http://m.twitter.com

A few popular Twitter programs (these are not distirbuted by the official Twitter website) are:

Tweetdeck.com (for Mac & PC)

A list of popular Twitter programs for your Blackberry

Reviews of Twitter apps for Apple's iPhone

I see @ and RT in tweets - what does that mean?

A tweet preceeded by @ means the person who sent the tweet is responding directly - but publically - to the other person.  A tweet with RT is a "re-tweet".  Someone received a tweet they thought was so good they decided to forward it to all their friends.

OK, how to I get started again?  Just the basics!

1) Go to Twitter.com to create a new account

2) Go to Twitter.com/news4buffalo and click the "Follow" button to receive WIVB News 4 tweets