WEB 2.0 AND RECRUITING

Another Web 2.0 application is Twitter. (www.twitter.com). According to the definition on Wikinomics, “Twitter is a free social networking and micro-blogging service that enables its users to send and read messages known as tweets. Tweets are text-based posts of up to 140 characters displayed on the author's profile page and delivered to the author's subscribers who are known as followers. Senders can restrict delivery to those in their circle of friends or, by default, allow open access. Users can send and receive tweets via the Twitter website, Short Message Service (SMS) or external applications.” 1

Twitter has it’s positives and negatives. I personally find twitter too limiting. Your messages to your “followers” can only be 140 characters long which makes it hard to say very much. On the other hand, it’s great for short messages. One particularly good use might be to broadcast safety or security alerts. Companies could alert employees about an emergency without having to select e-mail addresses like you do in regular e-mail. Twitter works great for a large group to coordinate meetings, or status updates. Twitter is good for reminders and short status updates that don’t require a lot of detail. If you find Twitter too limiting, an option is to post a link on Twitter to another site that contains a more complete message that you are trying to get across.

To go to the website and set up a (free) account click on this link: http://www.twitter.com
Once you get your account set up, look me up!

To see a short video on Twitter, click on this link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ddO9idmax0o

Reference:
1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter. Retrieved 9/22/09 from the internet.

Marty Brack
E-mail: mdbrack@crimson.ua.edu
Cell: 205-837-4098