I am not embarrassed to admit that I have been a tweeter for at about five years. I started subscribing to hamsterwatch, which is a blog that gives Big Brother updates. I’m not embarrassed about that either! I didn’t even know it was called Twitter, but I would get these updates to my cell phone from hamsterwatch for instant info on what was happening in the Big Brother house. Now, years later, I find that I was on twitter before some techno people even knew what it was! I followed Paula Deen on twitter when she didn’t even have 25 followers. She now has almost a half a million. So, if you aren’t familiar to twitter let me explain it to you.

Twitter is like a mini facebook. Tweeters tell you in 140 characters or less what they are up to. I think the big difference for me between Twitter and Facebook, is that on facebook my personal account follows people I really know. On Twitter, I don’t know anyone who tweets.  But I “follow” several categories of people. My favorite twitter is @Breakingnews. I get immediate up to date information on everything going on in the world. I also follow my local weather. I follow certain celebrities, just for entertainment purposes. I follow some of my favorite stores, who tweet about coupons, sales, etc. I also follow some of my favorite bloggers.

Twitter works like this – you sign up and start searching for people or companies you want to follow. Once you find them, you “follow” them. There are lots of fake twitter accounts, so my advice to you is if you want to follow a high profile person you make certain that their account is “verified” by Twitter. You can tell if they are verified or not if there is a blue check mark next to their name. Or just read some of their tweets (the term for the 140 or less character messaging) and you should be able to tell pretty quickly if it is real or fake account.  You don’t have to tweet to twitter. On my personal account I don’t tweet at all, but follow over 100 twitter accounts. You can opt to have the tweets sent directly to your cell phone.  Be very careful about this or your cell phone will be going off 24/7. The only tweet I get to my cell phone is my local weather. I have a twitter app on my iPhone to check updates or I can check updates at twitter.com.

One more little tip. You may find that people start “following” you. I get a lot of porno peeps that attempt to follow me. All you have to do, unless you want some porno people listed on your site, is to block them. You can also make your account private, which gives you the option of approving anyone who wants to follow you.

So, does this help explain it? Once you have signed up for twitter, be sure and follow me on http://www.twitter.com/consumeraverage