I’m tapping away furiously on my Blackberry as a friend arrives to join me for coffee. “Whatcha working on?” he asks.

“Just updating my Twitter,” I say. “Two secs.”

“Twitter, huh? I just don’t get it, I guess.”

“Oh, my. Allow me to get you to ‘get’ it, my friend.”

This is a conversation I have often, and while it might make some diehard Twitterers cringe, I relish this moment to expound and explain this little phenomenon that’s happening around Twitter and services like it. I’ve clearly drunk the Kool-Aid of the micro-blogging revolution, and I’d love to walk you through some of the ways people are enjoying it.

Wait, what is it?

Twitter is a service that functions like a giant bulletin board where anyone can stick a short note — 140 characters or less. These posts are called “tweets.” You can choose to read other people’s tweets (called “following” them), and other people can choose to read yours (these are your “followers”). Some people choose to keep their tweets private, and approve each request to be “followed.”

The most basic way to use Twitter is via the website, where a list of everyone’s tweets appears once you log in.  If you belong to Facebook, it’s similar to the home screen there (aka, the “news feed”)– which features a list of your friends’ recent activities. The main difference between the two services is that while all your friends’ activities appear in your news feed (though this is tweakable; another post on that another day), only people you choose to follow appear in your Twitter feed.

How do people use it?

There are two main groups of twitterers, and I want to address them separately — individuals tweeting on their own behalf, and organizations and business who are on Twitter. There’s some overlap, for sure, but have their own ends for which Twitter is the means.

Individuals: I am tweeting, hear me roar

Or purr, if that’s the case. Many people are on Twitter for some pretty basic reasons:

• Conversations. Twitter, as I mentioned in my beginner’s guide, is a two-way street with many lanes going in both directions. Everyone has the opportunity not just to express what they’re thinking/feeling/doing at any given moment, but to respond to what others are thinking/feeling/doing. I like to think of it as a water cooler in the break room, where I stop in periodically and see what people are talking about. This is especially helpful for freelancers, web workers and other folks who aren’t in traditional work environments. It gives us support and creates community.
• Expertise. People love to get and share advice on Twitter. It’s a great place to receive quick, immediate feedback on an idea, put out a link to a new blog post or article, or advertise yourself as a leader in your field.
• News. Lots of media organizations now have Twitter accounts, and use them to automatically publish links to new stories as they become available. Many people find it convenient to get breaking news there — and to report it themselves.  More individuals are now using Twitter to provide eye-witness accounts and to point out what’s missing from the news coverage. Both the Hudson River landing and the Dutch crash were first reported by everyday people on Twitter.
• Stay connected with friends. Our so-called digital lives, yes indeed! Twitter is a great way to  peek at what your friends and colleagues are up to. This certainly doesn’t mean you have to be responsible for reading every tweet (see my post on Twitter overload), but it’s a great way to casually be aware of what’s happening with folks you care about.
• Share interests & find others who share them. Are you a locavore? Would you love to share that passion with other locavores? Twitter makes it easy to find and follow others– check out the search function and use “hash tags” (see the beginner’s guide for the how-to) to track conversations and topics of interest.

Organizations: It’s so much more than outreach

Sure, you can push out information all you want, but there are a lot of other ways for organizations to connect with their constiuencies:

• Spread the word, connect the dots. There’s the obvious — post your own news and events — but there’s also huge value in giving your followers related info. If you’re an environmental organization, don’t just send out press releases from your own group. Use Twitter to link to articles relevant to your work, as well as share links to sister organizations.
• Have conversations with your community. Have I mentioned that Twitter is a two-way street? There’s a fantastic opportunity for organizations to listen as well as talk, on a very direct level. It’s a great tool for organizing as well as providing customer service.
• Give your work a human voice. Prior to tools like Facebook and Twitter, it was hard to make the work we all do at the organizational level feel personal and real. Take this opportunity to let your humanity shine through, and don’t sound like a robot when you’re tweeting for your org. Twitter is more about connecting humans to humans.

A little story

This is one of my favorite, illustrative moments in for how Twitter humanizes our digital interactions: Last fall, I was visiting my parents after participating at a media symposium at Ithaca College. My mother knows I have a thing for shoes, so while we were shopping, she decided to mess with me. We were at a store with rows and rows of discounted awesomeness, and she called across several aisles, “Come look at these! Should I get them?”

I was greeted by a blinding set of cream-colored, bejeweled, pointy-toed, gold-stilletoed boots on my fashion-conservative mother. We fell over with laughter, and I sent this picture to Twitter with the question, “Should my mom buy these boots?” (Best response came from @rit, who said, “That depends. Is your mother Dolly Parton?”)

A few days later, I was on the phone with Pete Leyden to discuss a potential project. We played phone tag for a few days while I was traveling, and I was excited to finally hear what the project was about. “Before I get into it, though,” Pete said, “I need to know: Did your mom buy the boots?”

It was one of those moments that allowed this entirely personal — but not necessarily intimate or vulnerable — connection between me and a potential client. We had a great laugh over it. Following me on Twitter gave him a fairly rounded picture of the type of person I am, and it let me know that he’s appreciative of the level of silliness that often invades my brain. It humanized each of us in what otherwise is a connection governed entirely by ones and zeros.

What else to say?

Attention, Twitterati: what else is there? Tell me why you Twitter in the comments. Two great resources that I’d like to share before we go:

• There’s a great video from Common Craft that explains Twitter in a jiff.
• Tara Hunt has a great post on tweeting for companies. It focuses on for-profits selling things, but I think much of it is applicable to non-profits, and maybe even individuals, as well.

Later this week, I’ll  follow up with a post on the big picture of Twitter, and what it ultimately all means. See you then!

Edited 1/3/2010 to include updates to Twitter interface over the past few months.
Note 11/9/2010: This was written/edited/updated before Twitter’s redesign in September 2010. I’m hoping to update certain bits in the coming months, but for now, know that some references to the interface might not make so much sense. Sorry!

Thanks to a bunch of mainstream media coverage, a lot of folks around me are becoming more interested in participating in the Twitterverse. “All right, all right,” they say. “You’ve convinced me. But how do I get started?” It’s almost like walking into a giant party for the first time: You’re not sure where your friends are, the bar is on the other side of the room, and the bathrooms are anyone’s guess. Allow me to be your party guide.

Sure, sure, you could also just Google “beginner’s guide to Twitter” and read a any number of other guides that have been written. Problem is, I feel like most of them focus on two niches: how to be a fanatical Twitterer, and/or how to be a really obnoxiously popular Twitterer. What I’m aiming for here is more for people who want to experiment a little and connect with other folks on a pretty direct level. We’ll talk later about different ways you can participate, but for now, let’s just get the basics down.

Grammar and vocab

First, it’s good if you can get some of the lingo down before jumping it. Pretend you’re visiting a foreign country where you don’t speak the language– there are always a few basic phrases you want to have in your back pocket.

• Following. These are the people whose tweets you’ve selected to read; their tweets appear in your “feed” or “stream.”
• Follower. This is someone who is reading your tweets.
• The @ symbol. Put this before any other Twitterer’s username to refer to them. Why? It creates a link to their profile automatically, which is handy for your followers to track conversations or look at people you’re referring to. @Replies will likely show up in that person’s Mentions page.
  Note that if you reply to another person using the Reply arrow button on Twitter, though, that only people who follow that person will also see that reply in your feed. It’s kind of a drag; more on this here.
• Rt, RT or rtwt. These stand for “retweet.” If you read someone else’s tweet that you think people following you should also read, put this before copying and pasting the whole thing, including the original tweeter’s username. Here’s an example, where I retweeted something that Nancy Scola posted: “rt @nancyscola: isn’t there something uniquely DC about 1/5 of Politico’s “top 10″ DC Twitterers not actually tweeting? http://ow.ly/qmy”
  Update: Also, you can use “via @username” to attribute something that you saw with another user, but aren’t directly quoting word for word. (thanks, @nezua!)
  Update #2: Twitter now has its own built in retweet function (the circular arrow button). Many people don’t use it, though, because those retweets don’t show up in Mentions, and it throws off their user’s own feeds by displaying the icons of strangers.
• The # symbol. Words that follow # in Twitter are called “hash tags.” It’s a way of assigning a keyword to a tweet so that so that others can follow the topic. For example: When folks were attending the WeMedia conference this week, they would tweet information about the conference and put #wemedia somewhere in the tweet. That way, everyone else interested in news from the conference could easily find and track them.� Tracy Van Slyke of the Media Consortium said this, for example: “#wemedia. Twitter wins game changing award! @biz says best thing: twitter isn’t about triumph of tech, it’s about triumph of humanity.” And you can see lots of other tweets from that conference here– by searching for the hashtag. If you see a hashtag in use and don’t know what it means, try checking out “What the Hashtag.“
• URLs that look like is.gd, tinyurl.com, bit.ly, etc. These are URL shortening services that take very long links and squish them down to fewer characters. Why? Because on Twitter, you only have 140 characters to get your thought out, and this leaves more room for your words.
• Direct messaging. This is a way of sending a message to someone so that only they can see it– like sending a txt message. The person has to be following you in order to receive messages from you, though! (No DMing Jane Fonda or Henry Rollins unless they’re following you, ya hear?) To do this, you can either go to the person’s twitter page (aka, their profile page), and click on the “message” link in the left sidebar. Or, if you’re using another device or application besides the Twitter website, you can type the letter d, the person’s username, and then your message. I.e., “d randomdeanna let’s go to happy hour at abilene later”
  

Finding your people

OK, you’ve got your phrasebook, now it’s time to wade in. Let’s start with the technical aspect of finding people to follow. Twitter makes this stunningly easy by providing a “Find people” link at the top of the website. Click on it, and you’re taken to a screen where you can select different ways to connect with other people you know. Click on “Find on other networks,” and then select your email provider and search for contacts already on Twitter. Twitter lets you choose who you want to follow from the list of people that it finds. It also recommends that you invite everyone else not on Twitter, but you can definitely skip that. (Please — it’s considered spam!)

What if you’re not on any of those email services? I actually don’t use my Gmail account for regular contact, so I exported my Mac’s Address Book (I used A to G), and then imported it into my contacts. You can do this with any of the providers listed; I’m pretty sure they’re all free. (I do find Gmail easiest to navigate, though.) Then you can come back to the Twitter screen and move along.

Finding people who might be your people

Consider looking for Twitter folk who you don’t already know, but who you might find interesting. The most effective way is often the organic way: Watch your friends’ @ replies to other users you don’t know. Click on those names. Scan through their tweets. Find them interesting? Follow.

Additionally, you can also browse through self-maintained directories of Twitter users. I don’t use these too much myself, but I know for a while TwitterPacks was pretty popular. If you have a favorite list or site, leave ‘em in the comments.

One last thing I want to mention is to pay attention to certain hashtags on certain days, particularly #FollowFriday (where every Friday, people tweet lists of their favorite Twitterers), and #Women2Follow on Wednesdays — awesome women from all over, Twittering away.

Getting people to find you

“But how will others know if I’m on Twitter?”

Well, you might want to start by telling them. You could go old school and send an email to people you think might be interested, though not that many people do it. I added my Twitter page to my email signature as a subtle way of “announcing” it. Note that the people you choose to follow likely have their profiles set to get an email or other alert every time someone new follows them, so you don’t have to tell them. You can also post a note to your Facebook profile, if you have one, telling folks that you’re Twittering.

Update: Two other points made to me about making sure people can find you:

• It’s a good idea to use your real, full name in your profile so that if people are searching for you, or if you come up in their list of contacts when they do the email address thingie, they’ll see you. (Thanks, Cos!)
• Another good idea is to change your icon right away, so that you get rid of the ugly brown default Twitter one. One, it’ll help differentiate your tweets in your followers’ feeds, and two, it’ll help people recognize you when they’re looking for you. Many people advocate for using a real picture of yourself, but I say as long as it’s something interesting and unique, go for it.
  

Setting your settings: web, email, phone, IM — oh my!

One of the best things about using Twitter is that it’s available from any number of devices. You can read and post on the Twitter website, sure, but you can also set up your cellphone to be able to send and receive messages — go to Settings –> Devices to see how to do that. I don’t get every tweet sent to my phone, because it’d just be too much. I have my phone set to receive direct messages only, so it’s an additional way to get txt messages from my friends.

You can also download any number of applications to use Twitter on your phone– I use UberTwitter for my Blackberry Bold, and it’s sort of bare-bones, but it gets the job done. If you’re on an iPhone, there’s about a jillion apps to choose from. It’s hard for me to keep up with what the hipsters are using now, so, iPhone users: What’s your favorite Twitter app? Leave it in the comments.

You can also keep your Twittering private. In the Settings page, at the bottom, there’s a checkbox that reads “Protect my updates.” Select this if you only want people you approve to read your updates.

Another thing to consider is that you can have your tweets also update your Facebook status. Most folks are split on whether this is a good idea or not; I’m a more the merrier kinda grrl, so mine are hooked up. You can do this by adding the Twitter app to your profile and adjusting your settings there. Or check out the extremely awesome Ping.fm service. This bad boy updates all of your social networks at once, using whatever type of communication you’re most comfortable with. Last, there’s another app for Facebook that lets you selectively post from Twitter– it’s conveniently called “Selective Twitter.”

There are also tons of applications that you can download for your computer, but that’s a whole ‘nuther post on its own. Currently, the popular apps seem to be Tweetdeck, Twhirl, and AlertThingy. I liked Blogo (which is a combo of blogging and microblogging software) myself, for a long time. Tweetdeck had just a little bit too much going on for me, and while Blogo isn’t as robust as far as features go, the interface is so clean and Mac-fluent that it just makes me feel good. I’m now mostly using Tweetie for Mac because of a keychain problem I had with Blogo that never got resolved.

But what do I say?

Well, just about anything, really. Okay, we’re probably not going to be interested in your belly button lint… but here are some methodologies you can try out:

• Pure professional. You’re an expert in your field and you want to share this with the world. Pick a couple of “beats” and focus your twittering on those beats. Find other folks tweeting about these topics and have conversations with them.
• Pure personal. Your cat is hilarious, you’re thinking about moving to Wisconsin, you’re on your way to Miami for a much needed vacation. You get the idea here, but do try to keep your audience in mind as you post some of your life’s minutiae. I’m guilty of posting weird stuff, for sure.
• The blended model. This is the way to go, and what ultimately makes Twitter so interesting, in my opinion. If I wanted to know people’s political analysis only, I’d go read their blogs. There’s a humanizing effect of reading about a distant colleague’s child’s first words, or seeing that people you think are on top of the world have bad days, too. It creates empathy and insight. When I tweeted that I’d had a really rough, emotional weekend once, I was surprised to see which followers spoke up to say, “Hey, we’re with you.” And it helped further complete a picture of me for them, as well.
  

One of the biggest things to keep in mind about Twitter is that it’s a conversation. I generally dissuade my fellow Twitter gurus from making blanket statements on how to use Twitter, but it’s clear at this point that one of the joys most everyone gets out of it is talking to one another. Reply often (remember your vocab? the @ symbol is your friend!) to your followers and people you follow. Twitter is a two way street, with many, many lanes going both directions.

What if I don’t like the people I’m following?

Stop following them.

No, really. If people are irritating, or tweeting so much that your stream/feed is overwhelmed and you’re missing other stuff you find more interesting, stop following those people. It’s okay. Manually check their pages every once in a while (this is what I do), or friend them on Facebook to follow their updates there, if you want. Or just walk away altogether.

This is all too much!

Check out my post on Twitter overload.

In closing, there are a few final wrap-up points:

• Twitter should be used how you feel most comfortable using it– don’t let anyone tell you that you’re doing it wrong.
• It takes a while to get the feel of Twitter. Commit, if you can, to trying it a couple times a day for two weeks or so. At the end of your little trial period, assess how you feel and how you think you’ll use it.

I’d love to hear from folks who are just starting out with Twitter: Does this clear anything up for you? Did I miss anything? And you hardened veterans out there, of course feel free to leave your $.02 in the comments as well.