| This fairly new method of communication has | | | | what they are doing. |
| taken off in the last few years. What started out | | | | Another innovate way to use this technology is |
| as a fun way for teens to share information with | | | | education. Twitter in the classroom. One teacher |
| friends and network with people from other | | | | at the University of Texas is using Hash tags to |
| geographic areas has officially gone to the next | | | | communicate with her students. Hash tags are a |
| level. Sites like My Space and Facebook have | | | | community driven tool for adding additional |
| grown by as much as 83 percent over the last | | | | context and Metadata to your tweets. Metadata |
| year according to the Nielson Online survey. This | | | | is simply (data about other data) mostly in the |
| growth is not just a fad. The use of social | | | | form of a link that is inserted into a post. This |
| networking has evolved into a way for | | | | allows the professor to organize data and present |
| advertisers to reach targeted audiences. As | | | | the topics she wants into a format for discussion. |
| incredible as this sounds neither of them is the | | | | I don't know how successful it is in teaching a |
| fastest growing social networking site. A new | | | | subject but it definitely has increased class |
| venue called Twitter is. This new venue is a very | | | | participation. |
| simple concept that lets you keep in touch with | | | | Besides Twitter there are many other social |
| people by sending very short messages quickly | | | | networking tools out there. Some are specific to |
| and frequently. The primary topic is "What are | | | | a subject or to an industry. There are industry |
| you doing". According to the Nielson Survey | | | | specific sites like the one for human resource |
| Twitter has grown 37,000 percent from the | | | | specialists or the one for medical physicians to |
| previous year. | | | | consult on a diagnosis. The one area social |
| Twitter has exploded onto the scene with an | | | | networking has not had a serge in popularity is |
| established concept of communicating with friends | | | | employee discussions about company business. |
| with quick messages. What makes it different | | | | Most businesses are afraid of the release of |
| from other social networking sites is in the way | | | | proprietary information. Making it easy for |
| you communicate. The user is forced to keep | | | | competitors to capture and pirate. In fact many |
| messages short. The limit per post is 140 | | | | of the leading technology companies have |
| characters. That is about 2 sentences. Sounds a | | | | warnings to their employees about company |
| little like texting only with a huge audience. Now it | | | | restrictions regarding the use of weblogs and |
| sounds like a very powerful marketing tool. | | | | public discussion sites when discussing proprietary |
| The way this works is similar to any mass media | | | | information. |
| tool. The trick is to build a large following. The | | | | In any case social networking is around to stay. |
| larger the audience the more potential there is to | | | | Two years ago My Space was on top then Face |
| make an impact. Entrepreneurs have figured out | | | | Book came along and the numbers dropped off |
| how to make this powerful tool work for them in | | | | for My Space. Now Twitter is the new kid on the |
| many different industries. Not only that Sports | | | | block and it is exploding. Next year Twitter could |
| figures, movie stars, and music artists alike have | | | | be the venue loosing popularity. No matter who is |
| found a way to keep their fan base informed of | | | | on top Social Networking has its place in America. |