Twitter, the new social networking site, has caught fire among people worldwide. Essentially the site allows you to post 140 character “tweets” that show up to all people that are following you.

Celebrities use Twitter to post updates of what they are doing, what’s new in their careers, or in rap superstar Lil Wayne’s case, post new songs and the links to download them. It gives fans a new form of interaction that gives people they are actually friends with such celebrities.

While more common among the younger crowd, business owners are finding Twitter to be a valuable source for communicating to the public. A local company, Tutu’s Hawaiian Shaved Ice offers online only discounts, announces new flavors and when the company will be making visits to various places.

Project Managers can use Twitter to see how the public will respond to a certain idea. It is a blog with much more views, as Twitter has bursted on the scene and competes with Myspace and Facebook as the social networking mega-giants.

The micro-blogging site ushers in a new wave of communication as Twitter can be updates from a mobile phone, computer, or anything with a internet signal. Not only can you tweet via your mobile phone, you can also receive updates of those you are following by a text message alert. (standard text message rates apply).

Twitter also allows you to post pictures to Twitpic, a partner site used for photo uploads, and gives followers a chance to see exactly what you want them to see, or give them a sneak preview of a product.

Also if you are planning on posting a larger blog than 140 characters, you can use your own blog, post it, and than post the link to that blog on Twitter. This essentially advertises your blog for free to the many users using Twitter.

Among the large company users are Apple, and Virgin Mobile. Virgin uses their Twitter as their own form of customer service as users post question and Virgin answers them, along with posts links to what you need or ask for regarding the company.

Twitter is more than just updating what your doing every 5 minutes. It is a necessity for any company to expand to the new technological market.

Have you heard of the new social networking site Twitter? Well if you haven’t and you’re not sure if you want to check it out or not, then read on!

Twitter is the newest and currently the top social networking sites. Twitter is a bit different from your average Facebook, Myspace, or MyYearbook account. On Twitter, you update your status, and follow people. But that’s not it. You can send personal “Tweets” (messages on twitter) to the people you follow, or celebrities! You can receive and send mobile updates as well.

It’s a simple website, but so much fun to use! Celebrities like Hugh Jackman, have used it to learn from people about new causes that he could possibly donate to. It’s simple to use, and has a user friendly interface.

Twitter also lets you upload your own avatar to personalize your webpage, along with a customized layout! Twitter tracks how many people follow you, and how many people you follow. It’s a great way to interact with people on line without the hassle of friend requests or spam! It’s the newest social networking revolution, and I believe it will never get old.

News broadcasts use it as well, (such as CNN and Fox), in order to get viewer opinions! Technology is getting better and better everyday, and so isn’t communication. So why not join just about everyone else in America, by logging onto Twitter and start your social networking experience today!

You really should have a twitter account! If you cannot, at any given moment, look at whether your best friend has beat a highscore on his xbox or burnt his bread, you’re missing out on a lot.

Now while the general public uses twitter as a quick and stable communication system, whiney hormonal adolescents have discovered it for their own self-gratifying journalling. Of course nobody will read about how their stubbed toenail sparked a furious debate between mother and daughter, ending in tears for both sides, but for the depressively fragile it is strongly cathartic.

But the versatility doesn’t end there. With 140 words you can make an impact. Strike a dent in the oppressive media with fist-shaking brevity. Pithily point out their bias! Taunt a celebrity! Make like a bird with some onomatopoetic twittering. Question your friends sexuality after the couch incident last night.

Before Twitter there was the equivalent of nothing. Unread diaries and journals of greasy angst formed the scorching desert of the internet. An electric mouth, hungry for activity, gnawing at the remains of websites with background midi music. It’s need has finally been satisfied.

With Twitter you just have a bareable amount of just that. Like say, a potted cactus gracing your living room. Scream all you want at the 140 character limit, but its for your own sake. If you keep it short, people will like you, or as Kurt Kobain said it, “Think before you tweet.”

Social networking is slowly infecting the way we live. People love talking, they just can’t be bothered to stand up. One could say it is a significant leap towards world peace, but that would be a lie and unacceptably impolite.

Social networking is simply a way to keep in touch with your friends, and a way for any private company to instantly monitor your entire online history, hobbies, favorite show and what type of guinea pig you’ve always wanted.

I find a brilliant use for twitter is trying to condense a grammatically correct story into 140 characters. It’s incredibly difficult yet rewarding.

Twitter easily lets you find new people to follow, before they drop into obscurity while you broadcast an unpunctuated tweet about what nail polish you bought. Stalkers will be delighted to hear that many celebrities have publically announced their allegance to Twitter. Finding that tree to sit on has never been easier, just don’t forget the rope.

Twitter can also automatically choose people that would be suitable to be your friends. Keep in mind though, it’s a computer and I wouldn’t trust computers and if you’ve seen Terminator, neither should you.

“Twitter” I’m sure most of us have heard the term somewhere, A friend may say, “tweet me later.”or you may hear it on the news since most TV stations seem to be getting into the whole social networking scene.

You’ve also probably heard someone say “Oh, I’m following them!” because yes, you CAN follow Celebrities, TV stations, Stores, Your favorite video game, Sports team, even… The President.

Basically its used to keep people up to date with ANYTHING going on in the world in real-time.

These updates are called “Tweets.” What is interesting about Twitter is that you can scroll all the way to the bottom of any page and search for people who are “tweeting” about topics that interest you! For example, if you type in Iphone you will receive “tweets” posted as soon as one second ago about the Iphone! It’s great for keeping up to date with music, movies, and current events!

Also, Twitter has a Trending Topics side bar on almost every Twitter page. It shows you what topics are popular and you can click any link in the side bar and be brought a search of the topic.

Twitter also gives you the option to refresh the page is someone tweets about that topic while you are already looking at the most up to the second tweets! A great feature!

You may be curious to what it means when someone “Retweets” something. Well, the art of retweeting is simple, it is basically just taking reposting something someone else has already posted, and giving them credit for the original post (tweet.) Most users put Retweet: before the actual post then credit at the end by using @ then the original posters name. Sometimes Twitter users use RT instead of Retweet, or sometimes they use “Retweeting” and then the post. Retweets are a lot of fun and can get you a lot of followers!

You can also send specific messages on twitter to one user to make sure they see what you have to say by typing @ and the user name of the person you wish to tweet. Example @Starrla88 Hey missed you today! or something along those lines.

Currently, two people who I follow on twitter are competing in a race to 100 followers, this is a fun idea between friends. Both are sitting around 60-65 followers, It will be interesting to see who will win because both are constantly neck and neck and fighting for people to follow one and not the other.

If you aren’t currently into the Twitter scene, you should check it out, especially if you own a small business you can promote yourself with Twitter. Or you can just use it to stay in contact and up to date on people who you care about!

At first glance, Twitter may only look like a site full of Facebook status updates. But to those of us Twaddicts (Twitter addicts), we know that it is so much more.

Among other things, Twitter allows you to: communicate with celebrities (if you’re interesting enough this can be a two-way conversation), stay posted on what your favorite celebrities are doing and/or thinking, keep tabs on where your favorite celebrities are, know what celebrity friends your favorite celebrities have, did I mention Celebrities?! Celebrity usage is the driving force of Twitter’s popularity. The fact that Twitter is so easy to use, it allows celebrities to do-it-themselves. Therefore, you don’t have to worry about talking to a publicist or personal assistant; you know you’re getting the real deal. If it weren’t for celebrities being addicted to Twitter, it would not be as addicting for the average Joe.

Following celebrities on Twitter is so popular, there is a website dedicated to it. On CelebrityTweet.com, there is a list a celebrities whose tweets are posting in real time on the site. Celebrities were always sitting so high up on a pedestal and now, thanks to Twitter, we can reach them and say hello everyday until they say hello back. Sounds a bit stalker-like, but it works.

Some celebrities are even hip to SayNow, a free site that allows you to receive voice messages from your favorite celebrities. I have to admit, when I get a text to my phone that one of my favorite celebrities just left a voice message, I listen to the message pretending it was sent to me personally.

I must thank Twitter for allowing me to be introduced to this site which I so love. While you are getting your heavy dosage of celebrities, you may want to chat with other people and look popular yourself with a lot of followers. You can go to wefollow.com and find people with the same interest who you can follow and they may follow you back.

However, the fastest way to get quality followers who are genuinely interested in what you have to say goes back to celebrities. If you can get a celebrity to retweet one of your tweets, you will see your followers dramatically increase before your eyes.

Again, you must say something interesting or extremely funny within the 140 character limit. You may want to check out this Twittionary full of Twitter lingo that will help you say everything you want to say using 140 characters.

Twitter allows you to get a good understanding of celebrity personalities. Some celebrities may annoy you with their tweets and cause you to stop following them. If you love everything about celebrities and want a way to be in the know, go register to Twitter and start following your favorite celebrities now. It will become your favorite pastime!

Twitter houses a significant number of people. Let’s start with a few examples of small companies using twitter to reach their clients we have Jetpens.com, Field Notes, and Doane Paper. Jetpens is an imported Japanese pen company, that broadcasts things like pen reviews, pen giveaways, sales, and offers on money off, along with their new products in their updates. Field Notes recently gave away notebooks as well. Doane Paper is a company that sells 3 products, all of them based around the idea of graph paper+lined paper = best paper for everyone. It’s exploded with a cult following, especially among fountain pen users, because the paper takes the ink well, and has small spacing, for those with tiny handwriting.

On top of that, we have some larger companies, with representatives that form the all-important human side of their huge business. Uni-ball has a person, Sharpie does as well(despite being the same company overall), Staples and Office Depot. The point of these is having a part of a company that will actually talk to you on a daily basis. Comparing favorite pens with a member of the Uni-ball corp definitely encourages you to get their pens next time, or at least remember them when you’re shopping.

A lot of people still only see twitter as a way to stalk their favorite celebrities, or perhaps to interact with Neil Gaiman, or Amanda Palmer. The difference, though, is between the celebrities who tweet back, like Felicia Day, and the celebrities who don’t tweet back. The ones who tweet back are likely building a dedicated fan base around the fact that they’re talented, social, and willing to talk with their fans.

A similar thing is done by Webcomic artists, such as Lar deSouza and Sohmer, the creators of Looking For Group and Least I Could Do. Perhaps a more recognizable pair is Gabe and Tycho, of Penny Arcade fame. Jeph Jaques, who writes and illustrates Questionable Content, also keeps and updates a twitter.

Most of these semi-famous people use it to let their fans in on their daily lives, for things such as grocery shopping, movies they watch, whatever they’re randomly doing(which brings to mind the night a few weeks ago that Amanda Palmer accidentally took over the internet because she didn’t want to clean her apartment—you can google or check the tags on twitter for “#lofnotc” if you’re interested about learning more.

Twitter has many different uses. For companies, and for individuals. Mainly companies use it to immediately broadcast things like sales, or the above-mentioned giveaways. But for individuals, it’s an easy to way to follow your favorite blogger, even if you’re not familiar with RSS feeds.

The recently added @ tab on the right-hand side, allows you to see how many times you’ve been re-tweeted by people. And lastly, my definition of Twitter: Twitter: A selective, global chatroom that has the pulse of the world. Whatever we’re concerned about, it’s on there. Whatever we’re thinking about, it’s in there.

It’s a new way to connect without being too personal or too invading, a fun new way to send messages across the inter-webs.

Humanity has reached a point in time where instant-gratification has taken over the world. Twitter has out done the demand for instant-gratification.

Whether you are a regular person on the Internet, or a business trying to please their consumers, Twitter creates the ability to keep everyone up to date instantly with a simple press of a button. There is no need to purchase your favorite gossip magazine because celebrities have turned into their own paparazzi. Instead of waiting until your local news hits the air on your TV, you can get instant updates on news while it’s actually happening.  Remember the pilot that landed on the Hudson River in New York?  CNN picked that up from a passenger putting it on Twitter as it happened!

Businesses now can keep their consumer’s up to date on new products, events and job openings. Everyone is taking advantage of Twitter to network, advertise and reach the world with a press of the button. You do not have to have a computer at home to enjoy the networking ability twitter supplies. As long as you have a cell phone, you can keep up to date with everyone.

When you have a fancy iPhone or Blackberry, you can get numerous applications to use Twitter in the normal way, but even a regular cell phone will en enough to use Twitter.  If it’s important for you to keep up to date with companies, celebrities or just even your friends, simply add each important Twitter user to mobile updates. After someone tweet(ing)s, instantly you will receive a text message letting you know what’s going on. If you’re out and about and would like to keep others updated on your life, you are able to text twitter and your tweets will be refreshed with your message.

Every can benefit from the use of Twitter. Companies can save money on advertising when they can reach millions of consumers instantly with their promotions. Celebrities have been known to keep their fans up to date with event information and sometimes they take the advantage to promote their favorite cause. Your message can be heard instantly for free, what can get better than that? What could possibly top Twitter? Twitter is a genius concept and should be used by everyone.

Critics will say that nobody cares what you’re doing from one minute to the other, but I find that keeping a random journal of a day is not only fun, but interesting, and has been the source of many a conversation between my friends and I.   Though people are critical of Twitter’s purpose and don’t understand a point to it, its growing user base and versatility – for business, news, and getting out of jail (like the American student who kept in touch with his friends at home when he was jailed in Egypt – his Twitter correspondences allowed people to get in touch with the proper authorities and free him) are securing it as an essential part of the Web 2.0 experience that is focused on the user and the ‘me’ experience.

If you don’t already have a Twitter, maybe you should reconsider why and possibly join today.

Twitter’s services aren’t limited to only Twitter users. If you want to keep everyone on Facebook up to date, applications allow you update your Facebook status with your most recent tweet. It’s likely that many of your friends in your Facebook network are not yet members of Twitter, so you may find that updating multiple statuses becomes cumbersome. What you may not know is that you can link your Twitter to your Facebook account! That’s right, if you update your Twitter status, you can automatically update your Facebook status. This allows you to begin to build a Twitter network, while keeping your Facebook status up-to-date at the same time.

Additionally, Facebook notes that your status is being updated via Twitter, which should build interest in the site, and hopefully attracting more followers to your Twitter stream. The best way to do this is to log into your Facebook account, and search for “Twitter.” Add the Twitter app, as you would add any other application within Facebook. You want to make sure it is set to automatically update Facebook status when you update your Twitter account.

Now a word of warning here… When you use the standard Twitter application to update your Facebook with your tweets, it can be a bit overwhelming for your Facebook friends! They are not used to so much activity from you. The solution to that is NOT to select the standard Twitter app in Facebook, but to select the Selective Twitter App, which will only update your Facebook when you add #fb to your tweets. This puts you in control of what you ‘tweet’ on Facebook.

If you tend to be on MySpace a lot, you can use the application Twitter Sync to synchronize your MySpace status with Twitter. I personally have a MySpace, Twitter and Facebook. Some of my friends belong to only one of the three networks, and it gets hard to keep up with everyone.

This way you can link your Facebook with Twitter and use MySpace’s Twitter Sync to reach everyone at once. After updating your status on MySpace, you can use Twitter Sync that posts my update to Twitter which will post my update to Facebook. Now you only have to update once to reach multiple audiences.  Twitter also enables you to link your updates with your website or blog by a Twitter-generated JavaScript that automatically includes your recent updates.

Advantages in using Twitter can be discovered on a daily basis.

As Twitter becomes more popular and is featured on the news as providing information about real world people issues about identity arise. Treated as an information source it is hard to verify that people twittering are actually who they claim to be, even more so than Facebook which uses email identification, at least for colleges.

News sources can be seen as vetting the identity of Twitter accounts by featuring them, we assume they have done their research, but this is not always the case. It is hard to know what is going on at the non-celebrity level, if people are playing pranks on each other with twitter, or more serious issues have arisen.

There are a wide range of reactions by famous people to finding a Twitter account claiming to be them. Folk singer Kimya Dawson decided to create one of her own after it came to her attention there was an impostor. There are numerous Stephen Colberts, some of which just drop quotes from the show others which actively pretended to be him and interacted with fans until they were found out, but not by Colbert, who doesn’t have any interest in the issue.

On the other end of the spectrum, pop musician Momus found his Twitter doppelganger amusing, as it fit into his ideas of postmodernism and authorship. For each entry in the real Momus’s LiveJournal, known as Click Opera, Twit Opera provides a pithy and sarcastic summary.

There are more serious cases reported by the news media, involving more than musicians and television actors. Financial institutions have had problems with Twitter impostors, Bank of America investigated an account claiming to be an employee, and many brands are concerned about possible bad reputations developing from fake accounts that are perceived as real mouthpieces.

For any corporation information control is a serious issue, so it is likely not a drastic change for them. Politicians would be in the same boat, well versed in dealing with public relations and controlling information, but they are usually not as good with technology, since typically they are respected for their seniority. In Alaska veteran Republican congressman Donald Young quickly acted to shut down his Twitter impersonator, however.

And with technology so comes law. A lawyer has already stepped up to specialize in Twitter impersonation cases, sending desist letters to Twitter and the errant account holders and filing legal actions if necessary. So watch out what twitter accounts you trust, a little investigation clears up most doubts, and also watch out who you fake, you could be sued!

As a user on twitter said that “addictions come in many forms…” This is true for my twitter usage, There have been a number of benefits associated with my twitter membership, but none explain my constant use besides addiction. I will list a few benefits that I have experienced using twitter. Great websites, Breaking news, Late night entertainment, friendships, a substitute for a journal, and a belief that someone is listening to me.

Among websites that I discovered through using twitter is this one. I was complaining about my life as was common, with our current economic situation. I expressed my need of a job,, or some way to make money. Somebody suggested to look at ClickBank . It goes without saying that I have, and so my hopes of finding a way to make money were not met in vain. Making such an idle comment on twitter led me here, where I am able to save up my money in order to purchase a vehicle and change my entire life standing. I have also communicated to others my testimony of tweeting and ClickBank to bring about true change in life style.

Probably the most exciting use of twitter is to get all of the breaking news before it breaks. There are websites that just list newspapers and organizations that tweet headlines. It is nice to receive constant outpouring of information via SMS on m phone regardless of where I am. Early in the morning, just waking up, in my bed. I know the weather forecasts and traffic conditions in my area, and globally. Each night as I lie in bed in that reminiscent state, I empty my mind of all the frivolous thoughts filling my head.

Through My social network, I have discovered such thoughts are actually of use to others. Above all though, I have discovered a cure for insomnia. Clearing my thoughts is in a sense therapeutic, and it is a natural way to ease my mind and prepare it for slumber. Plus, Tweeting gives me something to do instead of joining the millions of Americans who watch Late Night talk shows, I find my entertainment elsewhere. I just moved across the country, and belong to a large family.

Twitter allows me a fast and easy way to stay in contact with my friends and family. With twitter I have shared up-to-date photos of such events as ultrasound pictures, and a hike on a island that included up close viewing of live buffalo. Though I have been warned about forging close friendships online, twitter has provided me with a safety net of friends who care about what I say and always have something worthwhile to say. I really feel my life is better from using twitter.

Lastly, I always have my cell phone or laptop with me, making twitter the perfect substitute for a journal, recording my life events without pen or paper. Though not my intent or purpose, It was pointed out to me that I was being very “green” in saving trees, by not using paper. For me it was just a matter of convenience.

But when all is said and done, My true reason for tweeting remains: I am addicted, I couldn’t stop if I tried. Today I read a comment by Kate Hewlett (a famous actress, one of many Popular icons I follow) She said “What? Too busy for twitter or beer? Now, that must be really busy!”

Hashtags is an advanced, but easy-to-use Twitter feature. The reason they are called hashtags is because they start with a # symbol. Here are some examples: #rejectprop8, #dragmetohell, etc #rejectprop8 is a hashtag that people used when talking about Proposition 8. Users can put “#rejectprop8″ and then other Twitter users can easily find their tweets by looking at all the #rejectprop8 tweets.

Many Twitter applications, mobile and desktop, allow users to find hashtags. Some applications call them “trends” instead of “hashtags”. Most applications will keep track of the 10 or 20 most popular hashtags at any given time, so it really lets you see what people are talking about at any given time.

When the movie Drag Me to Hell came out last week (05/29/09) in the United States, many Twitter users began talking about it, and the #dragmetohell hashtag quickly jumped to the top of the Twitter top hashtag list. When looking at the #dragmetohell hashtag, I found tweets about the movie. Some contained links to reviews, some were just tweets about the user going to the movie that night, some were tweets suggesting that their friends should go see the movie, etc.

Many celebrities that have a lot of followers are very good at starting trends a.k.a. hashtags. They will post about #something and that #something will become very popular in a short amount of time. Many of their followers will begin talking about that topic and it will become widespread very quickly.

Another advanced feature is “re-tweeting” and if celebrities re-tweet tweets from their followers and those tweets in turn contain hashtags, the topic’s popularity will in a sense compound. For example, when Blink 182 member Mark Hoppus began posting about #rejectprop8, he also re-tweeted some tweets that his followers sent about #rejectprop8, and that in turn boosted the popularity of the #rejectprop8 hashtag. Soon it was at the top of the list, and Mark tweeted about how he was amazed how fast it climbed to the top of the list.

If you’re tired of reading the news to find out what’s going on, consider checking out the Twitter trend lists. Apps that let you easily follow the trend list are Twitterific, Tweetie and Twittertrend.