I am! Now if you know that I’m a keen birdwatcher, don’t confuse Twittering with “twitching”!

“Twitter” is a social networking site that’s a bit different. You can post messages of just 140 characters long which can be seen either by all the people on Twitter or just by the people who have chosen to “follow” you. Your “followers” are in effect a special selection of people and you can communicate directly with them via the Twitter interface.

Having such a short messaging facility might sound very restrictive but in fact, it makes things very tight and focused. For example, I could say something like “Just found this great site. Have a look” .. followed by a web address. Instantly, all the people who have chosen to follow you will get this message on their Twitter page - which is a very simple interface.

It’s very easy to invite friends and colleagues to join Twitter. Here’s my invitation to you:

http://www.IanSays.com/Twitter/YoureInvited

At first, I didn’t “get” the usefulness of Twitter. I only signed up because John Reese suggested that it was a good idea. And he needed convincing by the guy who is probably the “Twitter Marketing” guru, Ed Dale.

If you sign up for Twitter, Ed is one person you should follow (apart from me!) His Twitter name is Ed_Dale - some email clients don’t read an underscore very well, but there’s one between the “Ed” and the “Dale”. Similarly, my Twitter name is Ian_Traynor, again with an underscore.

Here’s one important lesson I learnt from Ed Dale. Do not expect every person whom you “follow” to reciprocate by following you. Also, do not try to follow too many people, or you’ll lose focus. And if some people twitter about too many irrelevant topics, stop following them.

OK, Twitter is designed as a very rapid messaging system. You can even twitter from your cell phone. And it can interface with other social networking sites, such as Facebook. Like any communication tools, you need to use it properly.

I’m trying only to post fairly serious messages, so you won’t find me twittering something like “Just going out to the shops”! So, follow me on Twitter for a while and see how you like it. See you there!

http://www.IanSays.com/Twitter/YoureInvited

And if you haven’t caught up with me on Facebook yet, here’s my FB address:

http://profile.to/iantraynor/

Log in to your Facebook account (or create one if you haven’t done so already) and send me a f’riend invite (mention that you’re an “Update” subscriber).