By Jeff
Send free SMS messages to your friends and family while you keep track of what they are up to.
If you're not using Twitter yet, you may feel as if you've missed out. Twitter has not only tipped the tuna, but by some estimations, it has already jumped the shark. Twitter is such a buzz right now such that even US presidential hopeful for the 2008 elections Barrack Obama could not ignore it. Check out his profile here.
Twitter lets you easily send free SMS from your computer to any of your friends.
Twitter is an interesting and practical real-time messaging system for groups and friends. It's just not completely obvious how to get into the "club."
So, here's a guide to this new platform. I didn't cover every feature of Twitter, but this few easy steps should help you get started.
To enjoy this free SMS service, you’ll need to follow these few easy steps :
1. Create an account on Twitter, and then log in
2. Invite your friends, so that they’ll create an account as well. You’ll only be able to send free SMS messages to your Twitter-friends if they set up their cell phone in their Twitter account.
3. Have them configure their account so that direct messages sent to them will be delivered to their cell phone
-Look on the right hand sidebar, the “send notifications to” lets you do this
-Ensure that the cell phone configuration is ok too, that is “notifications” are on for the cell phone.
4. Start sending them direct messages; they’ll get them as SMS on their cell phones :
-You can do this either through the web interface
-or through IM (for example GTalk or AIM) if you configured it. Basically you’ll add a special buddy (twitter@twitter.com for GTalk for example), and when you’ll send him a message, it will interact with your twitter. This is a way to update your Twitter status, but there is a lingo which will let you send direct messages. If you want to send a message to a user whose twitter account is my_friend, then send the following message to the twitter buddy : d my_friend hello there !
Turning off TwitterTwitter
Messages may drive you insane. If you want to turn them off, here's how: send the command Off, Sleep, or Stop to Twitter. To turn it back on, send On, Wake, or Start.
Twitterers worth following
In addition to your friends, you might want to follow some of these famous (or useful) Twitterers. Many people are still experimenting with Twitter, so we can't vouch for the long-term quality or frequency of updates from these users:
John Edwards: Twitters from the campaign trail
Robert Scoble: Popular feed from ubergeek and Twitter fan Robert Scoble.
Evan Williams: Founder of the company that built Twitter.
Rafe Needleman: I wrote this, I must be interesting.
Caroline McCarthy: Another Webware writer and ardent Twitterer.
Mafans twitter address is http://twitter.com/mafansclub
Happy Twittering Guys!
