Newbie question here...

What's with all the buzz and hype about twitter????

I see twitter as another hosted blogging, social networking tool. How is it different from Blogspot or Livejournal blogs, or Facebook and MySpace? Do you just try to make as many people as possible to "follow" you, to read what you write and then make them go to your site or spread a word about your site.

Am I getting this right?

Or may be I miss something that makes Twitter a really unique tool?

Would love to read comments from people who are actively using Twitter! Share your positive experience or any experience for that matter...

Twitter is a microblogging platform. You need to write your messages in 140 or less characters.

Yes, it is a social media platform. And like any other social media site, the objective of your presence on Twitter should be to provide valuable content to your followers.

If you regularly give out tweets with valuable information, naturally your follower base would grow. And then, you can start promoting some of your blogs by tweeting about them.

Twitter shouldn't be used just for promoting your blog / website, or you would soon lose your followers.

I do think that there is a niche for Twitter in the massive platform of social networking. I think that the appeal of Twitter is the fact that it is noninvasive unlike Facebook or MySpace. Twitter has provided me with real business relationships. Twitter is also a great place to learn about really cool stuff. There are a million different ways to use Twitter, but one good way is to run a search about a niche subject that you are interested in and find/meet other people that share the same interest. When they post ideas, or links you can go check them out. I typically follow links to their personal blogs and leave them comments there. It is all about building personal relationships.

The biggest difference between Twitter and Facebook for me is that I use Facebook to keep in touch with friends. I don't add people I don't know on my Facebook account, but I try to add new people that I don't know to my Twitter account.

Twitter is a good venue to get frequent visitors and followers, which can boost your site traffic. You can also get quality link juice from posting in Twitter.
Twitter is highly ranked on Google and in Alexa. This famous social networking site holds lots of traffic in the internet.

It's the latest and greatest thing out there! That's all the BUZZZZZZ!!!

Here's some twitter tips for you guys...

Firstly, place yourself in the We follow directory: WeFollow: A User Powered Twitter Directory using keywords that pertain to your interests.

Lots of Twitter tips and how tos here: Twitter Tips - TwiTip

Next, just start tweeting :-) Share useful tips pertaining to your area of interest, or what you believe people may be interested in.. you'll find that people will start following - particularly if they search for specific keywords.

Do a search for keywords and you'll get a list of possible people to follow. Build up your followers slowly don't build it up too quickly, it's very easy to lose touch with followers if you don't have time to read all the feeds. Better to have quality over quantity applies here.

Oh, and this is a must in the toolbox: Twitter Analyzer Home (one of the best I've seen)

PS: Beware - it can become addictive and easy to lose yourself in tweets when you should be working - a very easy way to procrastinate :-)

Very helpful websites...great information here.

The quuestion to ask is what's NOT so special about twitter?