Explaining the concept of twitter to those not already on twitter is difficult and leaves many people lost for words.  Here I will attempt to give voice to the concept of twitter for the benefit of those faced with describing it.

Twitter is a service

Explaining twitter as a website leaves out the staggering array of third party tools, sites and applications built around the service. As opposed to saying that twitter is a website on which you can post 140 character messages about what you are doing isn’t going to endear it to people used to facebook or especially those that aren’t heavily active on the Internet.

More accurately Twitter is a service that allows people to communicate in short bursts. 

This allows for both the Internet and mobile faces of twitter and can be followed by a description of how the Twitter service helps enable communities.

Something along the lines of Through Twitter you can find and keep up to date with the people that are relevant to your interests and activities.

If people come out with the “Why would anyone want to know when I’m going to the toilet?” question, remind them that Twitter is more about building relationships and less about dry facts, though posting your activities can often generate great discussion.

So once you’ve gotten their heads around the service concept, you can explain that there are generally two ways to use Twitter.

Twitter is useful for both personal and professional communication

While there are very few Twitter users that could be labelled distinctly as one or the other without some grey areas, they do tend to fall on a spectrum that ranges from purely personal use to purely professional use; the choice is entirely theirs. 

As far as personal use of Twitter goes, people find that the simplicity of communicating in short bursts makes it easier to stay in touch. Ask the person how often they use their mobile phone for SMS, chances are high that they use it frequently. Twitter is a really flexible type of SMS that is more useful for interacting with friends.

In terms of professional use, Twitter is a great way to put a human face on a brand, whether it be your own personal brand or that of a large organisation. 

Having an engaging and responsive Twitter presence can drastically influence the online good will of an organisation in a positive way. While it can’t be used in isolation, it is practically free to be involved with and scales well from sole traders to multi-nationals.

It’s also a cheap and speedy way of gauging your consumer base’s reaction to your brand or organisation. Quite often news headlines about companies generates heavy online discussion, most of which is linked on Twitter. Twitter is currently a fantastic snapshot of consumer opinion.

Twitter on a deeper level

This applies more for those that do use Twitter for personal reasons. Between the ability to express yourself succinctly and the ability to call on the opinions of many others almost instantly, Twitter is like outsourcing your inner monologue.

While most people are smart enough to only post the things they are willing for others to read, one of the reasons attributed to Twitter’s success is that the 140 character posts and the constant stream of information into which users can dip their feet is reminiscent of the way in which our mind works.

The voice of our conscience, once entirely localised within our mind, can now be bolstered with succinct input from others in a way that mimics our own interior monologue.

Parting words

Twitter is a service that allows people to communicate in short bursts. Through Twitter you can find and keep up to date with the people that are relevant to your interests and activities. Twitter is more about building relationships and less about dry facts, though posting your activities can often generate great discussion.

Twitter is a really flexible type of SMS that is more useful for interacting with friends, as people find that the simplicity of communicating in short bursts makes it easier to stay in touch. 

Twitter is a great way to put a human face on a brand, whether it be your own personal brand or that of a large organisation and is currently a fantastic snapshot of consumer opinion.

More deeply, Twitter is somewhat like outsourcing your inner monologue, and well worth diving into.