The Social Networking Compendium - Part 1 (Twitter)

Paris Hilton, Ashton Kutcher, Oprah, CNN, Kevin Rudd, Malcolm Turnbull, Barrack Obama, Britney Spears, William Shatner – do you need more names to convince you social networking is popular?

Unstoppable is one way to describe the exponential growth of social networking websites. From tinsel town Twitterers like Ashton Kutcher, Britney Spears and William Shatner, to political heavies like Barrack Obama and Kevin 24/7 there is a tsunami of people using Web 2.0 technologies.

And it’s not just restricted to the celebrities and their PR agencies. Organisations of all kinds have had to come to terms with employees using Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, LinkedIn and other social networking sites throughout the day’s work. Some have embraced the trend, while others have resisted.

But whether you love them or hate them, the social networks of this generation are unlikely to disappear off the radar anytime soon.

So, to help you get up to speed on all things Web 2.0 we’ve pulled together some of the hottest news hitting the Internet. In this first instalment, we take a look at Twitter – the hottest thing since sliced bread, or so the press would have you believe.

Twitter

The Polite Way to Take a Break, Ignore, Unfollow on Twitter The more people you follow on Twitter, the more you realize the truth: Sometimes, you want a short break from certain people. Sometimes, you even need to break up. Topping the list of annoyances, there's the too much information (TMI) tweets, followed closely by the criminally self-promotional and the disgustingly self-indulgent. These tweets can trickle into your Twitter stream with great regularity, rendering the service at times useless. Luckily, you can deal with the problem Twitter users in your life. From utilizing free applications, to simply "unfollowing" someone after they fail to exercise basic Twitter Etiquette, here's a few ways to deal with bad Twitter players - and not look like a jerk while doing it.

10 Twitter tips for the workplace Having trouble convincing your boss that Twitter isn't a waste of time? Then you might find it interesting to learn that social media evangelists across the U.S. federal government are blasting out Tweets several times a day to their constituents. Here are their suggestions for how to integrate new media tools such as Twitter, Facebook and Flickr into a large, old-fashioned bureaucracy:

Escape from the Twittering masses I'm thinking maybe this whole social media thing has gone too far. Maybe we don't really need to know what everyone we've ever encountered is doing every single moment of their lives in 140 characters or less. It's starting to distort our collective notion of reality.

Are you a business Twit? Kevin 24/7 does it and so does Malcolm of the opposition. Britney and Barrack are also on-board, joined by the stellar crowd of William Shatner and MC Hammer. Twitter certainly attracts an eclectic bunch of users as it does a generally flattering amount of press.

NASA astronaut says he will Twitter from space A NASA astronaut says he'll be Twittering from the space shuttle Atlantis as it travels to and from its mission to service the Hubble Space Telescope.

Are Oprah, Ashton Kutcher taking the geek out of Twitter? With Ashton Kutcher racing CNN to be the first to have 1 million Twitter followers, and Twitter's CEO Evan Williams sitting down with the ladies on Oprah Friday, what is becoming of the Web site that's garnered such techie love? Is all this mainstream media attention changing Twitter?

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ARN Staff

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