I am not wring this with any claim that I am ‘Twitter Expert’ or a so called ‘Social Media Guru’, all of that scene make me feel quite uneasy, what I will say is that Twitter is another great avenue in developing new business contacts and like-minded friends – so why not sign up? Want proof it can help generate business?

Dell has earned £3million from Twitter

There are no rules on how to use it, there are tips (http://www.twitip.com/), but to be honest they can go out the window after a few beers on a Thursday night! Twitter is a platform foremost, it was never set-up to really do anything and you just need to get in there amongst it, follow people who you finding interesting, most follow back. Engage in dialogue with retweets, @replies and industry tips… but don’t just broadcast.

Twitter is about the ‘realtime’ web which is very much a focal point on the ‘internets’ right now, as Caroline mentioned the other week, Google is focusing on ‘trends’ and that links in to the realtime web theory. Leading news stories are often broken first on Twitter which has some broadcast outlets concerned. I found out about Michael Jackson death whilst viewing my stream at Seattle airport, it was verified and confirmed right there on my handset… On Twitter I get animation news, technology developments and local gossip….

Want to know Twitters dirty secret? Meet ups, there is loads of them, I go to a local one in Hackney which is fab (#twee8), there’s also Twestival, Cosy Tweetup, Ale 2.0, Shoreditchtwit and OpenSoho … all great networking opportunities.

Use bit.ly URL shortener for live stats, I would recommend setting up an account and keep track of them. They themselves run in real-time, and if you put an offer out there, say a discount for a product or service exlusively via Twitter, you can watch it being clicked on/ retweeted all via the dashboard.

Tweeting via mobile applicatiions is probably the most convenient, you could use Tweetdeck, Tweetie for the iPhone, Uber Twitter or Twitterberry for the BlackBerry, or Dabr from mobile web.

For web applications; Brizzly is pretty good for managing several accounts, but as Mike Segall mentioned give FriendFeed a try too.

Hope you find that of some use. @3djamie or @slicedbreadanim me if you have any further questions.