OK so Twitter is rather loudly hitting the media columns globally - yes it's now a phenomenon as far as away as New Zealand. At least people know/hear the name - but have you actually got your head around it yet? Rather than try and describe it here's a quick start guide to get up and running - you will start to get it once you complete the steps below.

So for the beginner -

Twitter can be found here - www.twitter.com - simply sign up using your email address and then follow the instructions to confirm your online account.

Once you have your account setup - you can simply visit the Twitter homepage (save your login if you don't want to have to enter it everytime you go there) and view messages from your friends - oh you don't have any - go to the Find People link and either manually search for them (just pop in your favourite celeb and hit seach to try it) or alternatively click on the Suggested Users link and you can simply add people to follow on twitter. Everytime you send a "tweet" or message it will arrive on your homepage - and all your followers homepages. (or vice versa) OK so it takes a while to develop a following - much like real life - although check out TwitterCounter to see the most popular twitterers.

Often you may just want to find hot Twitter news stories - naturally in NZ right now a popular topic is the Napier siege - use the Search box on the right hand column of the Twitter homepage to uncover info you are looking for. (Google are rumoured to be in talks to buy Twitter - Twitter search is effectively a live search engine which makes Google look out of date and could make Google search obsolete. It is the next frontier of search by all accounts)

Also look at the Trending Topics links below the search column to see what is a hot topic on Twitter - check it next time there is some breaking global news story and no doubt it will be one of the Trending Topics.

If you're like me and time is in short supply you can also get another program that sits open on your desktop at all times and tells you quietly with a small bird noise and popup balloon message when a new Tweet comes in. (Much like a new email when it arrives) Simply goto the Twitter Downloads page to choose a relevant application to use. Currently I am using TweetDeck - mainly because I can use it to summarise/receive all Facebook updates as well as Tweets on one page. You will just need to tell the program you choose your Twitter name and password and then the information will start flowing.

Give that you only have 140 characters maximum per Tweet - people often use a URL abbreviation site to provide short web page addresses in their Tweets. To do this simply goto TinyURL and enter the long address and it will create a new address for you. Copy this then paste it into your Tweet.

Of course if all else fails - check out the Twitter Help page for more info.

And for some comic relief about Twitter - watch this YouTube video

Happy Twittering
-Jeremy