I always jump on the social networking bandwagon. I have a MySpace that I don’t use, a LinkedIn that I don’t understand and a FaceBook that I’m addicted to.

So when I heard about Twitter, I thought it was dumb (to put it mildly.) To be fair, as a general rule, anything that is promoted by news stations before the general public knows about it, I believe is trash.

Three months ago however, one of my many employers sent out a mass email telling us to follow them on Twitter. I am a full-time college student who does marketing jobs on the weekends; passing out flyers, signing people up for credit cards, doing food samples at Walmart/Sams Clubs and going to concerts and giving out free stuff.

The email stated that extra job openings will be tweeted 3 times a day. Usually these marketing gigs go by quick because they pay well and the work is not too difficult. So, I swallowed my pride and joined the twitter world.

After browsing, I realized that a majority of my marketing employers used Twitter to post new job openings that they don’t send through mass emails. I started to follow all my employers, potential employers, family and friends too.

I linked my cell phone to Twitter and I receive on average 100 text messages a day from potential employers. I was getting sick of it and about to quit until something great happened.

Last month, I received a Tweet on my cell phone while eating dinner. My boyfriend rolled his eyes because he is sick of hearing “Almost Easy” every hour when my cell phone “Tweets” goes off. The tweet said “Cartoon Network Event in WPB, FL need staff immediately.”

I called my staffing coordinator and she hired me that second. I worked that entire week and got my biggest paycheck ever. $1,000 for roughly 30 hours of work, that’s a lot for a college student (Although it’s gone now, due to wonderful bills.)

So, I have resumed being in love with Twitter. I use it primarily for work (I have FaceBook for friends/family) and I get so many extra jobs from it.

I know that Twitter can revolutionize the job hunting process for many unemployed people. I read an article claiming that Twitter has helped many people find jobs.

Employers like Palm Beach Post and ATT post jobs on Twitter and it can be great to be able to get job postings to your cell phone so you don’t have to sit by the computer all the time.

I wonder if Craigslist has a Twitter?

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.