all the world's twittering

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Sunday 3 May 2009thestar.com.my/lifestyle

All the world’sTwittering

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INSIGHT STARMAG, SUNDAY 3 MAY 2009SM 4

A little birdLearn how Twitterers and tweets and Twitterati aremaking connections in the Twitterverse by sharing theirives.

By NIKI [email protected]

THERE’S a popular catch phrase on theInternet but it’s not a buzz. It’s a Twitter.

Even if you have never used it before,hances are you have heard it crop up in con-ersations. Don’t think you can get away withust dropping that term casually during discus-ions, though, because Twitter is not just a buz-word, it’s an action.

Twitter is a social networking tool thatllows users to send messages – in 140 key-trokes or fewer – to individuals or a networkf “followers”, and to receive them in turn fromeople they follow. These tweets, as the mes-ages are known, answer the simple question:What are you doing now?”

Tweets allow you to throw open the minuti-e of your life for all the world to see, or to fol-ow the activities of your favourite sender (orenders).

Yes, other social networks, like Facebook orMySpace, do the same, as do online blogs, butweets have a sense of immediacy that’s down-ight addictive.

Blogging about your experience at AnnieLennox’s Hong Kong showcase 10 minutes after’s over is interesting. But using your cell phoneo tweet “Annie Lennox rocks!” along with aicture of the moment is so much more excit-ng for the people who follow your tweets. Andou’ll get a kick out of it too, believe me – espe-ially if you have a lot of followers.

Feeding celebrity maniaIn the voyeuristic society we live in today,

Twitter, along with all those other social net-working tools, has thrown the human web con-ept of “six degrees of separation” out of the

window. We’re all so much closer now, not onlyo each other but also celebrities. We can nowommunicate directly with the rich and theamous, even with huge names like pop star

Britney Spears (twitter.com/britneyspears) andAmerican Idol host Ryan Seacrest (twitter.com/yanseacrest).

Actor Ashton Kutcher (twitter.com/aplusk)as the highest numbers of followers on

Twitter – more than 1.5 million as of last week!One reason for that could be, unlike somecelebrities’ tweets, Kutchers tweets are obvi-ously personal and are not sent by a face-less PA or “ghost” Twitterer. You certainlycan’t get much more personal t han hisrecent riot-in-cyberspace-causin g tweet:using the TwitPic program, Kutcherattached a picture of his wife, actressDemi Moore (twitter.com/mrskutcher),bending over in a b ikini to a post that read,“Watching my wife steam my suit whilewearing a bikini. I love Go d!”

It is, arguably, Kutcher who is partiallyresponsible for the rise of Twitterers recent-ly. Last month, the self-proclaimed King ofTwitter challenged news network CNN(twitter.com/cnnbrk) to a race to see whocould get one million followers first. (The con-test wasn’t quite as pointless as it seemed: thewinner was to donate 10,000 insecticide-treat-ed bed nets to one of Kutcher’s causes, MalariaNo More, on World Malaria Day on April 25.)

CNN accepted the challenge and went on theoffensive, giving Twitter a tremendous amountof publicity.

One of its more popular anchors,Larry King, even relea sed a video onYouTube addressed to Kutcher ask-ing: “Do you really think you cantake on a network? Do you knowhow big we ar e?” It must saysomething about the society welive in today that, on April 17,Kutcher was declared the win-ner.

Even more recently, talkshow queen Oprah introduceda whole new audience toTwitter when she sent out herfirst Tweet: “Hi Twitters.Thank you, for a warm wel-come. Feeling really 21stcentury.”

With her clout, Oprah w illprobably overtake Kutcher in the number offollowers s oon – even before that first tweet,she had more than 73,000 followers, accordingto the news magazine, victoriaadvocate.com.

Why would hundreds of thousands of peoplewant to know the mundane fact that Kutcher isat a production meeting (an April 26 tweet) orthat rapper MC Hammer is watching sea turtles(an April 15 tweet)?

Well, the glory of Twitter is in the details,says veteran television producer and writer LeeGoldberg at victoriaadvocate.co m: “... it seemsthat the more mundanity there is in the tweets,the more personal and intimate the experienceis for those involved. It’s like, ‘Hey, Madonna’shaving her period, and I know about it!’”

And why do celebrities bother to tweet these

mundane things? A small-time star might beglad for the publicity, but why would Kutcheror Madonna bother?

To connect: It seems Twitter allows celebri-ties to sides tep media outle ts, even their ownpublic relations people, and go straight to theirfans: “Stars can use it to not only build theirbrand, but to control their brand,” says RodneyRumford, a new media expert who has writtena book on Twitter ( Twitter as a Business Tool) atvictoriaadvocate.com. “They don’t have to waitto be written up in People magazine. They canmake their own news.”

More than just funStill, Twitter is more

than just about connecting withfamous people. In the three years since itsinception, Twitter has proved unexpectedlyuseful in cases when urgent information isneeded, and fast – like during the November2008 bombings and siege in Mumbai, India.

The Guardian newspape r’s technology editor,Charles Arthur, poi nts out how the photo-shar-ing site Flickr and Twit ter provided a kaleido-scope of what was going on minutes af ter theattacks be gan (guardian.co.uk/technology/2008/nov/27/mumbai-terror-attacks-twitter-flickr).

While accurate information about who hadbeen killed, injured, or taken hostage was bet-ter handled by the more conventional channels,

Twitter’s strength lay in passing on details ofwhat was happening – that minutiae we men-tioned earlier. Twitt er, Arthur also says, hasbeen used to great eff ect during natural disas-ters such as fires.

Timeliness is definitely one of Twitter’sstrengths. In January this year, when an USAirways plane had to make an emergency land-ing in the Hudson River in New York, the newswas first broken on Twitter. Twitterer JanisKrums (twitter.com/jkrums) has been creditedas the source of the first tw eet (and image)about the incident that read: “There’s a plane in

the Hudson. I’m on the ferry going to pick upthe people. Crazy.”

In April 2008, then-journalism student JamesKarl Buck was arrested in Egypt while coveringan anti-government protest. On the way to thepolice station, Buck managed to tweet oneword, “Arrested”. It was not long before his fol-lowers alerted his university, the US Embassy,and international press organisations, andefforts were soon made to s ecure his rel ease.

From the time when it was introduced in2006, and especially since late last year whenmembership to the site s piked tremendously,Tweeple (people on Twitter) have found manydifferent ways of using the tool.

These days, it is used as a medium for infor-mation dissemination and sharing, a l og ofdaily happenings and activities as well as a

communication tool, among others.While there are no official statistics fromTwitter, analysts such as international researchconglomerate Neilsen Co mpany peggedTwitter’s growth rate at an astounding 1,382%year on year. The company noted that totalTwitter users in February 2009 numberedseven million, compared to 475,000 in thesame month last year.

Malaysia’s tweeting tooIn December last year, blog Twitter Facts

(twitterfacts.blogspot.com) reported that therewere 3,429 Malaysians on Twitter, based onlocation information of users on the website.

Taking into consideration the upward trendof new users worldwide (in the United States,there was a 131% increase between Februaryand March this year, reports ComScore) and

that many users do not disclose their location,it is a safe assumption that tens of thousandsMalaysians are currently Twittering.

Many local users, myself included, who havebeen Twittering pre-2009 have noticed thesudden explosion of Malaysians in theTwitterverse. (Yes, puns like these are aplenty!).

On his blog (davidlian.com or twitter.com/davidlian), PR consultant David Lian says: “I’vebeen on the servic e for more than a year and Ithink I must’ve seen double the activity onTwitter in just this very short period of time.”

The April 17Larry KingLive show onwhich AshtonKutcher wasdeclared thefirst Twittererto get onemillionfollowers.– AP

The Star ’s tweetsTWITTER is not only used by individu-als; the social networking tool has prov-en to be very usefu l for organisations toengage with their customers.

And that includ es The Star . You canreceive the paper’s frequent updates onthe latest news locally and abroad by fol-lowing twitter.com/staronline. For thoseof you who would like your updates in

Bahasa Malaysia, The Star ’s BM portal,mStar Online also tweets regularly; fol-low twitter.com/mstar online.

Recently, The Star ’s youth portalR.AGE (twitter.com/thestar_rage) gath-ered loads of f ollowers when its teammembers followed American Idol run-ner-up David Archuleta during the sing-er’s visit to Malaysia.

The team of reporters was able tokeep fans upda ted almost instantly withpictures and updates from the schoolthe singer visited, SMK Sri KDU, as wellas pose quest ions tweeted by @thestar_rage followers – and i nstantly tweetArchuleta’s answers!

If you’re interested in updates on con-tests, youth-related events, and gettingsome inside informati on on how R.

AGE’s team of young reporters work(and who they’ re interviewing!), twitter.com/thestar_rage is well worth following.

If you’re a travel buff, then you mightwant to follow twitter.com/allmalaysia,which tweets information from TheStar ’s travel and information portalAllMalaysia.info, including informati onon travel-related events, activities, andpackages.

The Prime Minister’s Twitter page at twitter.com/najibrazak. Hetweeted his impromptu walkabout (inset, photo by MOHDFOIZAL / The Star) in a congested KL area just three minutesbefore he arrived there.



STARMAG, SUNDAY 3 MAY 2009 SM 5

And if the burst of tweets from local public per-onalities are anything to go by, this is just theeginning.

Our graphic above offers suggestions o f whomight be interesting to follow.

The most high profile Malaysian personality onTwitter is none other than Prime Minister Datuk

eri Najib Tun Razak (twitter.com/ajibrazak) himself, who uses the service to inform

he public about his daily agenda – with the occa-ional surprise thrown in. For exa mple, his stop atalan Masjid India in Kuala Lumpur, which wasweeted just three minutes before he show ed upwith this simple post: “3pm – Walkabout at JalanMasjid India and Puduraya.”

Not everyone uses Twitter just as a means ofharing schedules, however. IT analyst Nilesh Babutwitter.com/nileshbabu) says that he uses theocial networking tool to track local events and toatch breaking news.

He also finds it to be a useful tool in discourse. “Ise it to listen to and share opinions. Twitter allowsou to gather masses of opinions and feedbackeally quickly,” he shares.

Indeed, as Boston Globereporter Hiawatha Brayeports, “It turns out Twitter is a superb way toapture the wisdom of crowds.”

Bray, who writes on technology, has several hun-red followers, mostly from the technology indus-ry: “I realised I could put them to work. Whenearching for a technical expert or the answer to auestion, I toss off a quick tweet and cross my fin-ers. More often than not, it produces useful repliesrom people who know their stuff (boston.com/usiness/technology/articles/2009/04/30/sorting_ut_the_chaos_of_twitter).”

I myself sent a tweet to my followers asking theirpinion of Twitter for this article!

Popular blogger Suanie Tew (s uanie.net orwitter. com/suanie) responded, saying that she

uses Twitter for its more personal flavour.“I use Twitter to jot down fleeting emotions or

quick updates on my life – the daily routine stuffthat I used to blog about before the emergence ofTW (Twitter),” she explains.

“I still blog about that stuff, but they tend to belonger and more thoughtful instead of, ‘Hey thisis a photo of what I ate for lunch’ .”

There are lots of other social networking tools,some of which have come and gon e. So, is Twitter apassing fad?

No, according to Tew: “How important is it as acommunication tool in my life now? I can give upFacebook, but I’ll fight you before I give up Twitter. Iusually win.”

■ Niki Cheong is contemplating therapy for hisTwitter addiction. You can follow him at twitter.com/ nikicheong.

told me...

TIPS on getting started:1. Go to twitter.com and sign up for

an account.

Tip: Choose your user name carefully; you can change it later, but changing too frequently will confuse your followers and friends.

2. Once you have signed on, you canstart Twittering. Type in your tweet(remember to keep it under 140 key-strokes) in the text box and click“Update”.

3. If you’re directing your tweet to aspecific fellow Twitterer, use the @symbol followed by the person’sTwitter user name so that he/she willknow that your tweet is addressed orrefers to him/her.

Tip: Many people use the @user nameat the start of their Tweets but you canuse it as part of your sentence. eg,“Wonders if @nikicheong knows I am

here.” 4. Start following people. You can useTwitter’s numerous search features orlook at the graphic above. To follow auser, just visit their profiles (click ontheir user names or head to twitter.com/<theirusername>) and click onFollow.

Tip: A good way to ensure that peoplecontinue to follow your Twitter is to followthem back.

General tips:● Twitterers like to re-tweet (RT)

interesting tweets. To facilitate this,

leave enough blank spaces (10-15 char-acters) in your tweet so that they canadd: “RT @username” before they re-tweet your tweet to their followers.

● Numerous applications haveappeared for computer desktops(TweetDeck) and cell phones (Gravity forNokia, Twitterberry for BlackBerry, andTweetie for iPhone) that can make yourTwitter experience more enjoyable.

● If you would like to have a personalconversation with someone or direct amessage to one person (all Tweets arepublic unless you set your account toprivate), you can type “D<space><username><space><Message>”. To do this,the two of you have to be mutually fol-lowing each other.

● To attach a picture to your Tweets,

try using websites like TwitPic (twitpic.com).When you want to share a website

link, opt for URL shorteners likeTinyURL (tinyurl.com) to save on char-acter spaces. At such sites, you canenter the full address of a website andit will be turned into a short form thatyou can then copy into your tweet or e-mail; it will not break and it will neverexpire.

Jump on board

Twitter founders Biz Stone (left) and EvanWilliams. – AP

@Khairykj Khairy Jamaluddin,

Umno Youth Chief Family,

football andUmno Youth− in

no particularorder.

@ t o n y f e r n a n d e s D a t u k T o n y F e r n a n d e s , C E O Ai r As i a

He t r av el s t he w o r l d , and he l et s y o u k no w .

@ J J h i t z

J J , R a d i o P e r s o n a l i t y Ask lot s of quest i ons ab out and b e y ond hi s r adi o show .

@ A t i l i a H a r o n

A t i l i a H a r o n, s o n g s

t r e s s

“ I s h a n g i n g o u t, i

s

e a t i n g t o o m u c h, i s

s i n g i n g ... ”

@d a v i d l i a n D a v i d Li a n , P R C o n s u l t a n t F unn y T w eet s, g r eat c onv er sat ionalist .

@N a j i b R a z a k D a t u k S e r i N a j i b T u n R a z a k , P r i m e M i n i s t e r Most l y hi s sc hedule, b ut somet i mes he sp r i ng s sur p r i ses.

@yyusuff Datuk Yasmin Yusuff,Personality Lots of conversations.

@ k i d c h a n

K i d C h a n,

P h o t o g r a p h e r

T w i t t e r s n i c e q

u o t e s,

b u t n o t

e n o u g h p h o t o s.

@ A n w a r I b r a h i m D a t u k S e r i A n w a r

I b r a h i m , P K R P r e s i d e n t

M o s t l y t w i t t e r s h i s b l o g

p o s t s , o c c a s i o n a l l y d i s c l o s e s h i s n e x t

s t o p .

@sa iw an sta r Won g Sai W an, T heSt ar Senior NewsEdi tor.Breaking news with some commentary.

@l im yhLim Y un g-Hui,He ’s be e n a rou nd

t he Ne t a n d h e

kn ow s h is s t u f f.

@Sazz yFalak

Sazz y Falak , Ac tress

W h a t s h e ’ s u p t o,

w h e r e s h e ’ s

h e ad i n g.

@ s t a r o n l i n e T h e S t a r N e w s u p d a t e s , w i t h l i n k s t o f u l l s t o r i e s .

@mbselangor1 4

Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim ,

Selangor Chie f Minis ter Lo ts o f fo l lo wers, jus t no

T wee ts ye t.

If you are new to Twitter andare looking for local people tofollow, check out some of theseMalaysian personalities.

@czipleeCzip Lee , s ta tioner y shop

Ha s a team re spond ing

to your enqu ir ie s.

@ g l o s o n

G l o s o n T e h, 1 1,

b l o g g e r

E x t r e m e l y y o u

n g ,

e x t r e m e l y

p o p u l a r.

all the world's twittering

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