Twitter has many tweets in store

Whether you're a bored celebrity looking for some time pass, a nobody looking for excitement or an entrepreneur looking for publicity, Twitter is now more than just a social networking site

Twitter has many tweets in store

Whether you're a bored celebrity looking for some time pass, a nobody looking for excitement or an entrepreneur looking for publicity, Twitter is now more than just a social networking site

From trivia such as Lindsay Lohan posting her nude pictures to the more serious like Iranians mobilising support for their contentious presidential election, Twitter has its uses for everyone.

Twitter began three years back as just another one of those free social networking sites to keep family, friends, colleagues and acquaintances updated about your status personal or professional.u00a0

And that's how it is largely even today. But people are also putting it to "novel" use. Sci-fi author and blogger Samit Basu is one of them.

Samit has started a word count race on Twitter for whoever is writing be it a novel, fiction, sci-fi screenplay, play, graphic novel script or non-fiction. The idea is to finish a novel (exceeding 60,000 words) by October 31. Till then, writers can update their progress on Twitter (or even heckle and jibe), the objective being to tell the others about their progress and motivate each other to meet the given deadline.u00a0

And so does guitarist and musician Vikramjit Tuki Banerjee. "I use it primarily to keep fans, friends and fellow musicians updated about what I am up to."u00a0

In fact, most of them have their Twitter account linked to Facebook so that when the latter is updated, Twitter automatically catches on.

The difference, however, is that Twitter is used to share far more succinct and FYI kind of thing. After all,u00a0 it is meant to be "an antidote to information overload" as the Twitter site says.u00a0

"We are very choosy about the messages we send out on Twitter," says Lourd. He doesn't believe in bombarding his followers with information. "I have Facebook to do that."u00a0

Tuki says he often announces concert tour dates and special collaboration projects/CD releases etc through Twitter. "I have also linked my Twitter account with my Facebook account so when I update Twitter, all my Facebook friends get the same status update."u00a0 But he posts pictures of concerts and feedback on his Facebook profile.

In fact, even though Amandeep Singh Sandhu,u00a0 a tech writer with Cadence Systems and a novelist, doesn't use Twitter yet, he thinks it's a "great tool". "It is more effective than Facebook or Orkut. It is more immediate."

Kiss theory

And such effectiveness comes from its philosophy to keep things short and sweet. Twitter has a 140-character limitation for status messages. While some might consider it a challenge to express their thoughts in those many words, others see that as an opportunity.

Tuki says, "I have not yet got down to composing a song on Twitter but I think I could do it in the future. It would definitely be a challenge with the 140-letter limit."

But Amandeep doesn't think the 140-character limit will be a challenge to anyone. "Anyway, it isn't meant for thoughtful articulation or something to read and feel fulfilled." For instance, he says he'su00a0u00a0 reviewing a book right now, which he thinks is "quite good" and had he a Twitter account, he'd have posted a line to say so.

More on Twitter

There are others who use it to post recipes or haiku poems. In fact, Novelrace followers are even giving each other tips on what would be an ideal length of a chapter and style of writing.

For instance:

ideasmithy: wonders what is the right length for a chapter. 1-1.5K is as far as I've gone with short stories & now one chapter. Thoughts?
allvishal: @ideasmithy Break them up as you like. Wrote a story with 2K chaps once, this one is leaning to 5K. Some may have none or 100.

Business deal

There is a completely different set of people who use it to draw eyeballs to their schemes and promos and check what the competition is doing.

"But Twitter was never meant to be a business tool, so at best is used as a teaser campaign and a 'tiny url' is added at the end of it for the followers to go and check details," says Sabyasachi Mitter, marketing director, Interface Business solutions, a webmarketing company in Mumbai.

As Amandeep rightly puts it, "It's a common man's ad market."

Twitter recipe
Chocolate Mousse: beat 4eggwhites. Gently melt200g/7oz drkchoc; slowly+3T butter&hot h2o&espresso. Cool down; mix+4yolks. Fold all; chill2h
Stephen Brady (New York Times Twitter recipe contest)

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