Twitter is the simplest way to communicate with the people in your group. Each member of the family can create a Twitter account (all you need is an e-mail address and it's all free). You can have MamaTwitter, DaddyTwitter, and Twits 1, 2, and 3 (the kids). As soon as the accounts are created, each member can find the rest of the family by using the Twitter search browser and "Follow" them - "Following" is the equivalent of being a"Friend" on MySpace or Facebook. This is the easiest way to keep track of each other throughout the day. Example:
MamaTwitter: I'll be late from the office tonight. What are we going to do about dinner?
@MamaTwitter DaddyTwitter: I can pick up Chinese at 7.
@MamaTwitter Twit1: I'm staying at practice till 7. Can dad pick me up before getting the Chinese food?
Each "Tweet" (update) has to be 140 characters or less. When you respond to a tweet the "@" sign of the person you're responding to shows before your name (thus in the example "@MamaTwitter DaddyTwitter: I can pick up Chinese at 7", DaddyTwitter is responding to MamaTwitter, so the @ sign shows before MamaTwitter).
This can be a place to access every member of the family throughout the day. If you want your in laws, aunts and uncles to have access to your group, they can create an account and you can all follow each other for an open book communication for the entire family.
If you want to keep your family group private, yet connect with others, you can create another Twitter account and start following your co-workers, friends and associates. As soon as you create an account, you have nothing but a blank page to stare at. It is only when you start following people that Twitter becomes exciting. The more interesting the people you are following, the more fascinating your Twitter journey.
Here is a good place to start: WeFollow.com is a veritable treasure trove of the most popular people on Twitter. CNN.com seems to be the most popular Twitter with over 855,000 followers. Britney Spears appears to be the second, with almost 780,000 followers. Ashton Kutcher, Jimmy Fallon and John Mayer seem to be third, fourth and fifth, in that order.
I just checked out the top Twitters and perused the few people these large players are following and just started following some of those people. Although the NY Times is being followed by almost 540,000 people, it's only following 80. I am now following several of those 80 people; I figure if they are good enough for the NY Times, they are good enough for me.
Go ahead and create a profile tonight! You can follow me for starters, by just clicking on any one of the birdies in this blog. Come back here soon for Lesson 2 of Twitter!
What's All The Fuss About This Twitter Thing? Part II - Play It Again, Sam!
What's All The Fuss About This Twitter Thing? Part III - Feed your AR Blog to Twitter:
What's All The Fuss About This Twitter Thing? Fitting It All Into 140 Characters:
For Up To The Minute News, It's Twitter, Not CNN that Delivers the Goods!
Twitter Treasure-Trove... This is Awesome!!!
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If you join Twitter, do you automatically become a Twit? :)
Not sure I want to know what everyone is doing, every moment of the day ...
I really like it when someone calls me, if they really want to talk to me. :)