CHAPTER 20: Social Media and Skype
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It’s possible you’ll never need another social networking app for your DROID. It’s also
possible you’ll find features or social networks missing from your collection if you rely
only on the included Motorola widgets.
Twitter and Microblogs
Twitter is part of a new generation of short, public
blogging tools known as microblogs. Twitter is a
rapidly evolving service that essentially started out as
a blog-like public collection of SMS messages from a
given user. Twitter posts, or tweets, are limited to 140
characters; this limitation reflects their start in SMS.
However, Twitter is also available from the Web, so
many users are not accessing it with their phone at
all. Twitter gained popularity in part because it
allowed a lot of open use from third-party tools. Some
(but not all) of those tools have made their way to
Android, and Twitter features are built into your
Social Networking and Social Status widgets, as
well as many other apps, including those shown on
the right.
You might wonder why you would use Twitter. The
short messages are great for pointing out items of
interest, letting your friends know what you’re feeling,
or critiquing a conference as it happens.
Twitter is good for business, too. If your business is transportation, you can let the riders
know about delays. If your business is weather dependent, you can let your customers
know if you need to make cancellations. You can also use it to advertise specials,
promote your latest accomplishments, or deepen your customer engagement by having
a conversation about their needs. Or you can use Twitter to listen to what your
customers or colleagues in your industry are saying. Chris Brogan has an excellent blog
post on the subject of Twitter and business at this URL: www.chrisbrogan.com/50-ideas-
on-using-twitter-for-business.
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