If you watched either the DNC or RNC, you undoubtedly heard news reporters talking about their “twitter” accounts.  On CNN, news reporters read comments from users throughout their show.  However, if you aren’t familiar with twitter, read on.Twitter.com is one of the newer things to take off in the world of online social networking.  It is a way for people to microblog about what they are doing from anywhere in the world.

In addition to being able to update your Twitter account from their website, there are multiple applications to help you do it from other spots.  For instance, you can download software such as Twitterific  (http://iconfactory.com/software/twitterrific) to update your Twitter account from your phone.   For your PC you can use Digsby http://www.digsby.com/ to update your twitter account in addition to having all your IM accounts in one program. After you get a Twitter account, you determine who you want to follow. 

When I started, I only had about 10 people to follow and most of them were friends who would definitely be seen as IT geeks.  However, now I am following about 150 people as I searched for people with similar interest.  To make it work for your business, seek out potential clients, potential investors, and others that might just want to learn about what you do and post about it.  You can find relevant links to post or just ask random thoughts.  You can also use it to ask questions of people in your network – just beware that just because someone says they are something doesn’t mean that the person isn’t a nine year old who knows more about computers than her parents!

The best way to learn about Twitter is to use it.  If you want someone to follow, my username is eclewis!  Happy twittering!