As you might have noticed on pittnews.com or on page two of our print edition, The Pitt News has been getting into Twitter lately.
You might have heard about it: Twitter, a free social networking service that links people together through frequent mini-blog posts, is the next big trend online. And we're using it to reach our readers.
We've been building our Twitter page,
twitter.com/thepittnews, and we send out breaking news alerts, headlines with links to stories and sports scores through Twitter.
The alerts get sent to our "followers:" other Twitter users who've chosen to be part of our network and receive our alerts. On the flip side, we follow a bunch of Twitterers, including some of the major news outlets -- the New York Times and CNN are just two examples of sending out news updates many times a day.
Typical Twitter users can send out their statuses throughout the day, a la Facebook, or they can respond to other Tweets they see. Many of our staffers, including me, have started their own accounts. Let me just say, if you like Facebook, this is absolutely the way to go.
It's like constantly being plugged in to the people and news you want to know, and being able to get to that information easily or join the conversation.
It takes the best of the Web developments you've grown up with and rolled them into one: chat rooms, instant messaging, text messaging, Facebook newsfeeds, blogs and RSS feeds -- Twitter hearkens back to them all.
The best thing about Twitter is it's versatility -- the trick to Twitter is learning how to use it without going to the actual Twitter Web pages. Instead, users can follow or Tweet through text messaging, widgets downloaded for their PC desktops, plug-ins on cell phones or through a number of other social networking sites.
Because many of Pitt's classrooms -- especially the Nationality Rooms -- aren't conducive to
many students bringing laptops and viewing The Pitt News online, we wanted to give students the option to follow us when they don't have a print issue or computer around. Following The Pitt News on Twitter will give you instant access, via Twitter or a text message sent to your phone or any other creative Internet plug-in you find, to breaking news, including instant updates of Pitt basketball game scores.
To get started, just visit
Twitter.com. Remember to follow us @ThePittNews.
If you have a cell phone with Internet access, you can get hooked into Twitter using a handy plug-in like
TwitterBerry for Blackberries or
Twitter for iPhone. Even though Twitter started as a small site more than three years ago, it's quickly growing and pushing into the mainstream. Seriously, it's the next Facebook.
Here's the Post-Gazette story on Twitter, which ran on their front page today.
