It comes as no surprise that I enjoy Twitter. I might even have an unhealthy obsession with the service. On my trip to Hawaii I twittered everything we did and everywhere we went. My wife was not amused.
I think the thing that really makes Twitter special (and micro-blogging in general) is the ability to share an experience that others ordinarily would would never get to. This is true not only for the big events, but for the goofy things that we take for granted. As a matter of fact I find more people are interested in the little details in your life.
I see the view out of my office everyday. And it really is nice to work in an environment that gives me sunlight through out the day. But very few of you have gotten to experience that same scene. I wanted to help you broaden the experiences you offer for those on Twitter through a service called TwitPic.
On it’s front page TwitPic asks the question…
What is TwitPic?
and it gives the very simple answer of..
TwitPic lets you share photos on Twitter
Here is the step by step on how to start sharing what you see with those who connect with you on Twitter.
1. Go to www.twitpic.com
If you need much more explanation than that you might just need to put down the computer.
2. Log-in with your Twitter user name and password
This step is also fairly easy, but admittedly cause a little bit of confusion for a second or two. Most sites by default have a Register link. So I automatically scan for that link. After not seeing it, I actually tried reading and saw that they only needed my Twitter username and password. So on we go…
3. Set up your phone
Once you’ve logged in there will be a handful of links in the upper right hand corner. I will briefly go over each, even though I am going to focus on setting up mobile uploading.
- Home-Takes you to a list of all of your uploaded pictures
- Public Timeline-Speaks for itself (a list of recently uploaded pictures from EVERYONE)
- Upload Photo-The link will allow you to upload directly from your computer. Just browse and upload
- Badge-Gives you some code to stick on your website and share your recent TwitPics
- Logout-It logs you out
Settings, is the link I am going to focus on will set up your phone to enable emailing photos right to TwitPic for automatic display on Twitter.
You will be directed to a page to set up your email address. By default TwitPic assigns you an email based off of your username a random pin number and @twitpic.com So it would look like this
For those that are saying, “Hey, I don’t want all of twitpicdom to see my pictures”, no problem, just click the “Do not show my updates in the public timeline button” But seriously, you are about to post your pictures to all of Twitterdom and Big Brother already has a copy”
Now you are ready to go to your phone.
1. Setup a TwitPic as a contact
2. Go to your camera:
3. Take a picture:
4. Email it to TwitPic:
It may take a couple of minutes for your picture to show up on TwitPic/Twitter, but providing everything is set up correctly your Twitter friends will see this:
Once they click the link they will be directed to TwitPic:
And that is it! Repeat steps 2-4 until your hearts content.
“Play around with the “Share this photo” and “Put this photo on your website” links on your photos page to extend the usability even more.”
Now you are sharing not only what you think, but also what you see. TwitPic provides a way for your friends, locally or internationally, a way to experience your world.
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