How exactly does Twitter work?

[Jennie]

I have just joined it. I know I am late in the game but it's ok. I just don't understand. Are people reading what I say? What is with all the # symbols? I am folloing some people and if I say @andtheirname does everyone that follows them see it? or just them? Help?

[Annabelle-Grace]

Okay example:

@persons_twitter im writing this message to you.

The above will appear on your 'timeline' and they will recieve it privately but those following you will be able to see via your timeline and tweets what you've said.

[André]

I like to explain Twitter as "open text messaging," whereas normal SMS text messaging is closed. With both formats, you are sending short messages; up to 160 characters with SMS and 140 characters with Twitter.

SMS text messaging is closed in the sense that you send messages to a specific person or set of people. Conversely, Twitter is open in the sense that you send messages (or "tweets") out in the open to anyone who chooses to listen; those who choose to listen to you do so by "following" you. In addition to the people who are following you, you can send a message to be also broadcast to someone who isn't following you by beginning the message with "@username". This is called an "@reply".

By default, your Twitter account is public, which means that people can follow you without your authorization, and your tweets will also be visible to anyone by finding you via search or viewing your profile. You can configure your profile to be private, which means you need to authorize those who request to follow you, and no one else can read your messages.

The "#hashtag" convention is a way to tag or mark message with keywords. For example, if you want to tell everyone you bought an iPhone, you might tweet "Just bought an #iPhone!" By doing this, you've categorized your tweet as being relevant to the iPhone, and it will be easily found by people or computer programs who are looking for tweets about that topic.

I hope the idea of "open text messaging" helps to explain why Twitter is different from other means of communication. To expand on this analogy, you might think about the difference between a telephone conversation and someone talking on FM radio. Here, SMS text messaging is like a telephone call, where the conversation is closed to all but the people on both ends of the phone line. However Twitter is like a talk radio, where anyone can choose to listen in.