UPDATED What’s Twitter?

Twitter is really hard to explain to people who aren’t using it, and when people ask about the Twitter features they’ve heard of, such as hashtags and retweets, it gets worse. Then people start to ask about “Twitter on their phone” or programs that work with Twitter, and the confusion multiplies.

It’s like trying to explain the infield fly rule to someone who doesn’t understand the basics of baseball.

To help this situation, I offer this post, which will index some links to “How Twitter Works” articles and other media around the Web. Watch and learn, people.

Articles

• The help page on Twitter’s Web site
• How Stuff Works article on Twitter
• Another article from Rowan Wilde
• This series of articles by journalist Gina Chen can give you some good ideas about how others are using Twitter. A good article for Twitter rookies (that’s “newbie” in Web parlance).
• Another great how-to comes from Amanda Maurer

Videos

Twitter in Plain English from leelefever on Vimeo.

I’ll add to this list as needed, or at least as I remember to.

Related posts:

1. Building a Twitter strategy
2. Twitter lists: A gentler introduction to Twitter
3. Washington Post columnist on why reporters should use Twitter
4. Web first or not?
5. Dabblers go home; journalists need to be social media leaders