I'm in pajamas in my living room, but I just found out that neuroanatomist Jill Bolte Taylor's talk moments ago at the TED conference was fantastic, magical and transcendent (thanks pkedrosky). Holding up a real brain on stage in her gloved hands, spinal cord dangling (thanks pierre), she is describing how she had a stroke and then studied it first hand as it happened and as she recovers from it.

Breaking news often hits Twitter first. Use Twitter to be there as the most exciting conferences and events are happening (especially if you're in the new media industry); hear insider commentary (sometimes less than discreet if tweeted from a drunken afterparty) from the most brilliant venture capitalists, CEO's, technology leaders, SEO's, and social media consultants; participate in amazing conversations about anything from enterprise software solutions to the most interesting new web sites; or get the latest headlines from business media and companies such as:

• NYTimes Business
• Financial Times
• TimesBusiness
• LA Times Biz
• Hoover's
• TechCrunch
• Small Business Trends blog - Anita Campbell
• Duct Tape Marketing - John Jantsch
• JetBlue
• onstartups
  
• Dell
• B2BOnlineMktg
  
• Zappos
  
• whatworks
  

What is Twitter and how does it work? It's simple. It's a microblogging service founded by Evan Williams and Jack Dorsey. Basically you answer the question"What are you doing?" in 140 characters or less (so posts can be sent as cell phone text messages). Twitter is a gold mine of information - you can "follow" and be followed by anyone from your customers to colleagues to people you most admire.

Action Steps
The best contacts and resources to help you get it done

Get started on Twitter

Go to Twitter and sign up for a free account. Then create your profile and upload an image. Add a one line bio - these are often whimsical. You can choose to set up phone or IM notifications in addition to web - this means you may send and receive Twitter messages through your cellphone or instant messenger client. You may choose to approve people who can read your updates (protect your updates), or you may want the whole world to follow you.

I recommend: Carefully consider what username and image you would like to use. You've already figured out your purpose for using Twitter, right? So, act accordingly. If you are sending company updates, use the company name as your username and the logo as the image. If you are Twittering as an individual, you probably want to use your real image (or a good caricature of yourself) and a username close to your real one...well maybe not. You may or may not want people to easily find you. Maybe you are famous and only want to Twitter with a select group of friends; in that case, you may want to make sure people searching on your real name won't find you.

Design your Twitter presence

Twitter success is often based on subtle and cool details, like what your one line bio says, your username, and your Twitter page design. Remember, you want to transmit something of your real presence and emotional nuance across the ether.

I recommend: Here are some Twitter background guidelines. Make sure if you tile the background it doesn't look like bad web page design circa 1995, unless you want it to! It may be a good idea to first check out some sample backgrounds at http://twitter.com/chrispirillo, http://twitter.com/guykawasaki, or http://twitter.com/Coley for ideas.

Give some thought to what you'll Twitter...or not

If you are a media company, blog, or business selling a consumer product, you may want to Tweet a series of constant headlines or updates. It pays to give some thought beforehand to the structure and frequency of your Tweets to both make your life easier and because a key to addicting devoted followers is content whose form or topic they can rely on. As in any social media participation, make sure you add value and are not just tooting your own horn. Well...too much tooting is just boring and boorish!

On the other hand, you may be using Twitter purely to keep in touch with friends or associates, or to communicate in a freer way than usual. In that case, enjoy your freedom, divulge your most profound thoughts and deepest insecurities, tell us what you ate for lunch or where you just had a cup of joe, or even how your wife's labor is going.

I recommend: See examples of media twitters at http://twitter.com/nytimes, blog twitters at http://twitter.com/mashable or business twitters at http://twitter.com/DellOutlet. Fire departments are even using Twitter for updates.

But...Twitter is stupid! Solution: Follow smart people

Many people sign up for Twitter, all excited, and then...nothing happens. They don't get it or think it's stupid. Why? Because they have not yet found interesting people or businesses to follow. You need to find people to follow and convince others to follow you to make it all interesting, addicting, and useful!

I recommend: Try searching for people in the Twitter "find folks" search box. But remember, lots of interesting people don't use their real name or full name on Twitter. You need to find just one interesting person to start with, click on their Twitter page, and then click the "Follow" button. You will start seeing their updates when you visit Twitter. If you enjoy following that person, see who they are following, and you can add some of those people too. Often when you follow someone, they will follow you back.

You can also find lists of Twitterers to follow such as business Twitterers, SEO Twitterers, IT analyst Twitterers, Twitterers interested in social media marketing and Twitterers who are at TED. You may also randomly find interesting people to follow through browsing the Public Timeline to see recent Twitter updates, or find influential Twitterers at Tweeterboard or Twitterholic.

Search Twitter

Searching Twitter can be a fascinating way to see what keeps popping up in the latest conversations, from Jill Bolte Taylor's brain to Blue Bottle coffee. Reporters these days are searching Twitter as a starting point, and many people are ignoring their feed readers in favor of getting the most important links of the day at Twitter.

I recommend: Advanced Twitterers keep track of tweets at Twitter search engine Terraminds or Summize (you can subscribe to results as an RSS feed), browse tagged tweets at Twemes (see earthquakes or tequila for example), Tweetscan (try small business). Or view random tweets around the world from London to Tokyo at Twittervision.

Use desktop applications to streamline your Twitter use

If you use Twitter's web interface, it can be hard to easily see who is replying to you and who is sending you direct messages. Desktop applications built for Twitter allow you to read replies and direct messages inline as well as offer a more custom browsing experience.

I recommend: Try Twitterific for Mac users, which supports multiple Twitter accounts. PC versions include Twitteroo, Snitter, or Twhirl.

Sync your Twitter & Facebook updates

No more writing of multiple updates...use the TwitterSync application so your Twitter updates become your Facebook updates as well.

I recommend: If you have a Facebook account, grab TwitterSync here.

Totally addicted?

First of all, it's nice that you're developing an intimacy with strangers, but *do* remember that you live in a real neighborhood. Consider getting up from your keyboard from time to time or putting down your cellphone and chitchatting with your in-the-flesh neighbor over the backyard fence, or even go get Blue Bottle coffee with that neighbor instead of tweeting about it. Yes, attention to real people in actual physical proximity can be a good thing.

I recommend: If you have become a Twitter addict, there's always the official Twitter blog, articles about how laid-off people use Twitter, or blog posts about why your fellow addicts can't stop either. I'm sure you're much too busy to play Tweet140, which will track the length of your posts and the closer to a 140 character average, the better your score. You can even participate in Twitter's evolution by suggesting new features at the Twitter Wiki.

Tips & Tactics

Helpful advice for making the most of this Guide

• •  To monitor how your business is perceived, create a Twitter account and then send 'track [your company name]' to Twitter to get text messages whenever your company is mentioned by any of the million Twitter users.
• •  Find out what Twitter is talking about today at Twitterverse: http://www.twitterverse.com/ or see popular stories digg-style at: http://twitigg.com/
• •  You may achieve a certain intimacy with your fellow Twitterers that you didn't expect, such as awareness of what kind of green tea they like to drink, issues they are having with their significant others, or their pet peeves.
• •  Be careful about Twittering when drinking wine - you may achieve a level of intimacy with your followers that you were not planning.
• •  There's a great introductory video about Twitter from Commoncraft community expert Lee LeFever: http://www.commoncraft.com/Twitter
• •  If you want more Twitter followers or know of great Twitterers to follow, please comment with usernames below.
• •  Track the URL's you put on Twitter through Tweet Burner http://tweetburner.com/

Twitter Networking is an online service for friends, family and associates wanting to communicate, build relationships and stay connected. Twitter limits the size of entries to 140 characters, which definitely makes exchanges quick and easy to type.

Twitter communication can be considered texting if you need to get an idea across and have to trim the number of characters. The minimal character limit is also known as microblogging. You will find Twitter networking constantly receiving answers to the one question: What are you doing?

1. Brevity is key on the Twitter Networking site. Users must focus their thoughts and express them as succinctly as possible.

2. Twitter networking information, and site access, is available through a Twitter account via a computer or mobile phone.

3. Twitter allows you to select preferences for keeping people in touch with your updates, and keep you current with the updates you're interested in.

Action Steps
The best contacts and resources to help you get it done

Gain knowledge from Twitter networking information resources

Hands-on experience is always a great learning tool. Set up a personal Twitter account and a separate business Twitter account. The uses for each will be different in most cases, and the knowledge you gain will be priceless. You can seek Twitter Networking advice from other users with similar interests. Learn from people who have already been there, done that.

I recommend: The best way to learn about Twitter is to jump in and create your own free Twitter account. You can gain any Twitter Networking help you need from the Twitter community by simply asking.

Uncover the details behind Twitter Networking's products

Twitter's main product is the social networking interface of the same name. Twitter allows users to post text messages via SMS, instant messaging, email, directly through the Twitter.com website, and by some third party applications. Users maintain their own profile page which displays their latest notes. Twitter Networking site users can become 'friends' with one another, or be a 'follower.' Users can read each others profiles, and receive updates through the format of their choosing.

I recommend: Twitter Blocks gives a real-time graphic image of updates posted from Twitter friends and friends of friends. A Twitter username and password are needed to access Twitter Blocks. Tweetburner is Twitter's URL shortening tool which can be use by Twitter members and non-members.

Try to keep up with Twitter Networking's ever-expanding services

The Twitter Networking site and third party developers are constantly finding ways to integrate new features and products to make the Twitter experience useful to the needs of Twitter's expanding member base.

I recommend: Twittertise is a business tool that allows you to advertise on Twitter and track your communications with customers. It is only accessible by Twitter account holders. Twitterfeed allows a Twitter user to automatically post content from RSS feeds as Twitter messages, also known as "tweets."

Tips & Tactics

Helpful advice for making the most of this Guide

• •  Monitor your business's image by using your Twitter Networking account. Send 'track [your business name]' to Twitter. You'll receive messages whenever your business name is mentioned by any Twitter user.