Aloha Connie,

Tweet, tweet, tweet, and tweet! The concept is simple but it's usefulness is not allways easily obtained. Tweets, as they are called, are mini blogs only a few words long that our posted like blogs and you have people who subscribe (Followers) and those who post (Followed). Depending on who you follow and who follows you will determine the usefulnessof the application in your life and occupation. It's very much like the Facebook "what are you doing now" function.

For instance, there may be a local boutique that you love but you always miss their sales. If they have a twitter account they may post the sale info as a tweet and if you decide to follow their tweets you will theoretically be informed when they have something that interests you by text message or email.

I follow the local traffic report which updates car accidents and sends the info by text to my phone so I can avoid unexpected traffic jams. I turn off the update by phone when I'm not commuting.

I also follow other designers, friends, business associates, the surf report, local news channels, retailers, our US congress persons, artists, creative types, civic organizations, comedians and the list goes on.

Who follows me? All sorts of people who for some reason saw my tweet and are interested in what I tweet about. An obviously beneficial function of Twitter is when you post a blog on AR it can produce a tweet informing your followers and providing a link to your blog.

It's neat stuff but you have to edit and be aware of who and how your following someone. For instance News twitters are constant so if you don't want to get constant text messages all day turn of the notification by text.

Also, you may not want just any one following you; there are functions to limit your public exposure.

Like anything it takes a little getting used to.

Peace,