Twitter is a microblogging client that allows users to make updates (tweets) in 140 characters or less and view other users’ tweets, as well.  The networking aspect of Twitter is far superior to that of most other social networks insofar as you can follow whomever you desire without feeling “creepy.”

That being said, each user has a very different reason for following who they follow. Some decide to only read the updates of various cewebrities. Whereas others stick to their own niche of friends. In my case, there weren’t many people who I knew on Twitter, so I ended up following a few cewebrities and a two or three people I (sort of) knew and then branched out slowly from there. I question some of the depth of the relationships I’ve forged through Twitter but, admittedly, it has proven to be a great networking tool for me.

As my networking on Twitter grew and my various relationships there flourished, I began using the service more and more. I now jump into various conversations and get replies to questions posed in my tweets. If you look at the following graph, you will see that although I have been on Twitter since May 2007, my use spiked just this past March. I am now a regular twitterer receiving updates through SMS and my favorite Twitter client, Twhirl.

My experiences with Twitter haven’t all been good. Twitter frequently goes down. This issue with scaling has become so prevalent that websites such as Is Twitter Down have been created to allow users to, well, find out if Twitter is experiencing downtime. Nonetheless, Twitter is gaining popularity and is picking up more casual users rather than just the core of tech enthusiasts who adopted the service early on. The service has a lot of growing to do and must learn to scale in order for that growth to persist.

Questions of the Day:

How do you choose who you follow? Do you follow everyone who follows you? Do you keep your tweets private? What is your Twitter experience and how do you think it can be improved?

Follow me on Twitter!  @matsie