TIP: To make a schreen capture of your iPhone, simply press and hold the “Home” button at center bottom of the iPhone, then press and release the “Sleep” button on top right of the iPhone. This causes the iPhone to “flash” white briefly and the image is added to your “camera roll” on the iPhone!

What makes Twitter particularly interesting is the variety of mobile Twitter application on the iPhone. All of them offer different features, and each tries to stand out from the crowd by offering its own assortment of Twitter functionality.

My favorite of the applications I have tried, is Twitterific by “iconfactor.” It offers the most attractive user interface and is by far the easiest to use. Runner-up, in my mind, is Tweetie, which offers a little more functionality but is not quite as easy on the eyes. They both open up the world of Twitter to the user.

They offer even more features than the Twitter website itself! In my opinion, until somebody has used these apps, they have not experienced Twitter and will not understand why it is interesting or even worth using.

It is such an interesting way to communicate and interact with others. Even celebrities! Celebrities love using Twitter because they don’t have to “be friends” with other users like similar social sites would require, such as Facebook or MySpace.

What is challenging about Twitter is that it limits what you want to say to 140 characters, and even text like web links are included. So if you include a web link, you’re pretty limited in what you can say in your “tweet”. That is why a myriad of URL shorteners has sprung up, to make your web liks as short as possible. TinyURL was one of the first to offer this, but their name is actually too long…I use http://z.pe you cannot get any shorter!

A rare feature in Twitter iPhone applications (even the official Twitter site does not offer this) is the ability to see a list of tweets that were written about any particular user. Reading these tweets is often very interesting, especially if they are written to a celebrity. You get to see how normal people would talk to a celebrity, and you can see how the celebrity responded as well. Some Twitter applications allow you to see conversations (or “threads”). This is another advanced feature that not all Twitter apps offer.

A lot of people are talking about Twitter lately. But Twitter works best when people are just using it rather than talking about it. If people talk about it without using it, it could be in danger of becoming a fad.

I personally think that Twitter has a bright future. There are so many improvements and innovations that could be made. When the day comes that I can record a video with my iPhone and then post it on Twitter for all my followers to see instantly, I will be in geek heaven and will more than likely abuse that feature.

Like so many others, when my friend Mitchell first heard about Twitter he was skeptical. However he found a very useful application for the 140 characters allowed in a tweet.  This is what he told me:  

At first I thought is this whole Twitter thing was rather silly.  A 140-character limit sounded like a twisted celebration of our society’s short attention span; what could you possibly say in so few words that would be worth reading? The first examples I saw were not particularly encouraging. Tweeting the most mundane daily occupations out to the world appealed to some friends, but that didn’t mean I’d want to read about what they had for breakfast.

As the Twitter universe expanded, though, other more imaginative people thought of some great things to do with 140 characters. Augusten Burroughs, author of Dry and Running with Scissors, was one of several authors who recently participated in Twitter book clubs, allowing readers to take part in real time discussions about their favorite books.

I had previously tried my hand at book reviews on websites like GoodReads, a social networking site for readers, and BookCrossing, a book review and exchange site, but it was such a commitment. Giving every book the thoughtful, detailed review it deserved could turn into a chore, and it was easy to procrastinate until I’d forgotten what the book was even about.

That’s when I remembered my Twitter account. It had been lying dormant since I’d joined (mainly just to read Russell Brand’s hilarious and inspired tweets), but now I had a purpose: 140 character book reviews. Oh, I’m sure someone else already thought of it, but that isn’t really the point. Instead of letting the world know what random thought is going through my head or what I’m watching on TV, I can turn Twitter into a tool that’s useful for me, a place to create miniature records of the books I’ve read and enjoyed (or not) without the time-consuming need to expound on every plot twist.

Capturing the essence of a book in 140 characters has its own rewards and challenges. It is necessary to strip out every syllable of extraneous detail, to reduce the impact of hundreds of pages to, essentially, a single sentence. Watching the Twitter character count dwindle downward toward zero puts the pressure on, and I find myself aiming for a new kind of perfection: exactly 140 characters. To see the big zero in the right hand corner of the screen is strangely satisfying.

“Last Night at the Lobster, Stewart O’Nan: a day in the life of a food service manager; much more enjoyable to read than it would be to live.” Okay, so it’s not exactly a haiku, or any sort of art, but it’s my own reason to tweet.  

The key to enjoying Twitter: find your own.

The first thing my friend Adriana did when she signed up for the extremely hip and popular Internet app Twitter was click on Find People so she could populate her feed with friends she knew. I think she found about 5 actual contacts, but none that were active. However, after becoming more familiar with the software, she realized that she could add celebrity Twitters and create her very own pop culture RSS feed!
The most interesting celebrity feeds on Twitter she found are:
• Warren Ellis – Ellis is a renown comic book/fiction writer known for the acclaimed Transmetropolitan and Hellbrazer series, as well as prose novels such as Crooked Little Vein and Listener. Joining his Twitter has kept me abreast of his work, but also has given me a peek into his very active imagination and sarcastic (and very British) humor. He also responds to your Tweets!
• Hugh Jackman – This Hollywood star is best known for his role in X-Men as Wolverine, but his Twitter lets us into a more private world where we see that Jackman is actually a really nice guy (who else would pay for breakfast for hundreds of fans waiting to see his movie??)
• Rainn Wilson – Also known as Dwight from hit NBC series The Office, Wilson has a very funny and frequently updated Twitter that shows him jostling back and forth with other comedians, and even regular ol’ readers like you and I!
• William Shatner – The original Captain Kirk of Star Trek is still kicking it online and has now picked up the pace with his Twitter, adding more frequent updates and interesting links relating to himself, Priceline, and even the new Star Trek movie.
• Dave Mustaine – Lead singer and guitarist of thrash metal band Megadeth, Mustaine gives his fans updates on recording, touring and is looking for you to join his page and spread the word.
• John Mayer – Popular guitarist and singer John Mayer has become notorious for his Twitter updates and his candor in general. Even if you aren’t a fan of the man’s music, it is definitely worth checking out his page because you’re bound to be on top of something that will be gracing Star magazine next week!
So think of a few celebrities you like and look up if they have a Twitter! There’s also always the option of trying the Suggestions tab to see who Twitter thinks you should follow. Have a blast – and maybe, just maybe, you’ll be able to get a tweet back from your favorite star!

Maybe a million different ways is a bit much, but it can surely be used in ways we have not figured out yet. You can implement it in the business enterprise or use it at home. You can find tweets describing what people ate for dinner last night or you can find police reports; an example can be seen here Milwaukee Police on Twitter.

There are some important advanced usages for Twitter, and if you think about new unique ways to use the service you realize that it can be much more than just another social networking website. Twitter does not have a large number of advanced features, and this can be a good thing in some cases. It allows the user to mold the service around just about anything. I have seen police departments using it to announce arrests and other police reports. Other strange or useful appearances have involved fire departments or new software releases.

One important usage that just about everyone could take advantage of would be implementing it with your blog. This can help to tell the world about new blog posts and other information related to your website or blog. This is the easiest and cheapest way to advertise your content. Some content management systems allow easy integration; examples include Wordpress, Joomla, and Mambo. There is really no reason to not include Twitter considering how easy it is to implement.

This may be why lately we are seeing a huge increase in Twitter news-related stories. However, you can also use Twitter in the workplace. This can be a great way to quickly share information with co-workers or the outside world. It is a free service and perfect for quick advertising. You can build up hype or share news on a new product release using Twitter. It allows people in the business world to share something new and unique in an easy and fast way. I have seen tweets regarding new video games releases. When these are released with new information people talk about them for days on end. It can be a very useful tool for building hype. The service seems to drive sales much higher when used properly.

However, you also have to be aware of the security issues that are involved. Any information you share basically becomes publicly available. This information can be seen by the entire world. You should therefore be careful with the information you share. In conclusion, the important place to start would be with analyzing your current business model. Understand what it is that you sell and what you want out of a service like Twitter. Think about the potential with advertisements and communication benefits.

Most everyone today is familiar with Twitter. While it may be fun to view the goings and comings of your favorite celebrity or athlete, I used Twitter in a very different way. Harnessing the power of Twitter was very easy once I realized that you could use the search application to narrow the types of people or entities you follow. For me, I have a son in high school that is quickly becoming college age. While there are the traditional methods of researching everything about a college including the average grade point of applicants, courses offered and other information from its web site or through a visit, using Twitter provided a very personal way to get insight into various colleges. True not every college we are considering has a Twitter site but they are growing every day. The first group of Twitter sites I added was the admissions department of every available college. These tweets consisted mainly of the daily goings on in the department as well as excerpts of the essays from applicants the admission counselors found good enough to share with the world. Frankly, this provided insight into the background, extracurricular activities and overall personality of applicants that the college admission representatives obviously believed had great merit. Another group of Twitter sites added was the sports. My son plays baseball and we added every college sports and baseball site we could find. These sites keep us up to date on the team’s goings and comings, scores and in some cases insights into the coach’s views. Like interviewing for a job, it is of the utmost importance to be as familiar as possible with aspects of a sports team you might join when discussing any recruitment or tryouts with the coach or coaching staff. Finally, but not least important were the Twitter sites of the college students. They maintain sites relating to their feeling about the schools, their campus activities, other students, teachers and the administration. We have found these Tweets to be quite informative as to not only the overall personality of the students taking the time to make entries but even the support and opportunities in the community surrounding the colleges. Using Twitter as an extended college recruitment tool dramatically increased our knowledge of the colleges and surrounding communities. It continues every day to grow as the network of those we follow increases. You can use this type of focus with relation to any type of networking group. It can be used for personal or business goals to both enlighten you and keep you in touch with people and groups in which you have an interest.

Twitter is the greatest thing to come around the Internet in years. I had never been on the leading edge of technology acceptance – before Twitter. I did Usenet News after it had long gotten past its prime, slept through the World Wide Web. Blogging ? Set up my own online diary ? Why would anyone do that ? But Twitter does it all. Social computing. Online news and views. Bulletin boards. Twitter can do it all. It is my interface to everything I’ve done online for the past twenty years. It is east to join and easy to use. And, most importantly, Twitter is free.

Twitter is a model of user friendliness because it does functionality right. You get started right away and you can learn as you go. For an old guy like me, that’s important, because I still remember VHS and Betamax, but never had the patience to program my Video Cassette Recorder, and I still remember learning to type using Multimate on a Compac PC that ran DOS. No, not MS-DOS, just DOS. If you throw too much functionality at me too fast, a man my age cannot absorb it all, but with Twitter, I can keep up with the youngsters, even get ahead of them. I’ve recruited one of my three daughters for Twitter – they all had Facebook pages – and managed to get one other’s long dormant Twitter account linked to mine, I’m a low frequency blogger, so what I typically do is just manually insert the links to my blog entries as I update my site. I have cross-linked my Twitter page to Facebook.

For me, the most important and attractive feature of Twitter is to act as a “one-stop shop” for web browsing. I’ve linked many news services, including BBC, the New York Times, Die Zeit, and CNBC’s Fast Money onto my Twitter feed. Usually, I’ll log on before going to bed, to check out what is happening. I reserve Favorites for specific items I want to keep, and if I need to know more, I’ll go to the owning website. I discovered that the Onion News Network is up on Twitter, always a favorite. There are also a number of government sites linked into Twitter, including the White House. Newt Gingrich and Sarah Palin also have sites linked to Twitter, so if you want to know where Newt is having dinner this evening, check it out. I’ve been a little hesitant to tweet at work, since our office operates in a secure intranet and it might be taken wrongly – but Twitter does have enormous potential for business intelligence gathering. Just a few days after joining Twitter, I came across a very interesting project that was announcing its open solicitation just the day before.

Again – the power of Twitter is that it gets you to where you want to go on the information superhighway without getting stuck in traffic. That’s what we all need don’t we?