The first time I heard about Twitter I thought it was a stupid idea for stupid people. No matter what I did I kept hearing about Twitter.  It seemed like I couldn't get away from it.  Then I started hearing some good things about this new phenomenon.  Things like "you have to try this thing" and twitting can be good for your business.  When I heard the word business I started paying more attention.

I soon found that Twitter can be a very valuable tool.  But, in the beginning I was very confused as to how I could use it.  I got my Twitter account set up and it was easy.   I set it up using my real name because I did not want someone else to set up an account using my name.  So anyone can see me using twitter by going to http://twitter.com/raybasso and what can be anymore straight forward than that.  Now I'm not the only Ray Basso in the world but there are not very many of us.  You don't have to use your real name as you can use anything that nobody else is using.  Since promoting my business is the reason twitting I chose my real name.

The whole idea of Twitter is the one question "What are you doing?"  You in essence answer that question every time you sent a new tweet and you must do it in less than 140 characters including spaces.  These little short bursts of information allow you to communicate with lot of people very fast.  These messages can be sent by mobile texting, instant message, or the web.  If your tweets are interesting than you will build up a group of people that follow you.  In other words they receive your tweets and can respond to them if they want or they can just see what your up to.  You can follow people that or interest to you and some people us this to get people to follow them.  If your following a lot of people it can get very hectic and so its a good idea to choose the people you follow carefully.

You might want to follow people that have the same interests as you do or you can use it to learn from people that you want to learn how they do things.  To aid you in all of this you need to study Twitter a bit.  The Twitter web site has a lot of information on it and all you need to do is look for it.  Also Twitter has spawned a bunch of tools and web site that will enrich your tweetting experience.  Here are links to a few of them.

• Tweetdeck http://tweetdeck.com/beta/ this is a great tool that you should down load and use
• Twitpic http://twitpic.com/ with this you can link pictures to your tweets
• Twhirl http://twhirl.org/ a desktop client for Twitter
• Twitterfall http://twitterfall.com/ With this you can drive yourself crazy watching tweets falling.
• TweetStats http://www.tweetstats.com/ Look at stats on your tweets
• Tweeterholic http://twitterholic.com/fb_tweeter/ More stats
• Twuffer http://twuffer.com to schedule your posts
• Twitter Feed http://twitterfeed.com Allows you to feed your blog to Twitter
• Twitter Grader http://twitter.grader.com  Allows you to see where you stack up against other Twitter users
• TweetBeep http://tweetbeep.com Manage your online Twitter reputation.
• Twitoria http://twitoria.com lets you clean up your followers that never use tweeter
• Qwitter http://useqwitter.com If you want to know when someone stops following you sign up for this service
• Monitter http://monitter.com You can monitor Twitter for keywords
  

If you need to shorten a URL these links will help you:

1) http://TweetBurner.com - A bare bones tracking service which allows you to shorten any link and then share it instantly with your Twitter followers or Friend feed. Basic stat tracking is available so you can see how many people clicked on your link.

2) http://Cli.gs - A shortening service which includes full analytics. You can create links that include your brand in them. Free to use. It's easy to send your links to Twitter with one click.

3) http://Bit.ly - This is Twitter's default shortening service and used by Tweetdeck.com. It allows you to track performance of your links in real time. Easy to share generated links on Twitter, Facebook, even Gmail. It also offers many extra tools and plug-ins such as a browser bookmarklet and browser sidebar.

4) http://MyTwitterToolbar.com - Free to download and comes complete with a massive list of URL shorteners as well as over 50 Twitter tools. Also includes 100 Twitter tips.

5) http://www.TwitClicks.com - A fairly simple service that allows you to shorten a URL immediately and tweet it. Can also see complete stats. Detailed stats show percentage of browsers used and locations of those who clicked. Check out a short video on how to use it at www.youtube.com/watch?v=i1ScPeCd6X4.

6) http://www.ExpandMyUrl.com - This service takes a shortened link and gives you the true URL that it points to. Perfect for the paranoid individual who wants to know where the shortened link will send them.

7) http://www.TwitPwr.com - A short URL service which also includes analytics and stats. Their home page shows the top 25 users with the most TwitPwr and also a "hot URL" list of those URL's that get the most clicks. Free to use.

8) http://1link.in - A multiple link shortening service. Simply type in a list of links and get one link back for all. If you click on the newly shortened link it goes to a page showing details of what sites that link points to, and asks if you want to open them all. If you answer yes, multiple windows will open for each site.

9) http://Go2.me - A different type of link shortening and discussion service which creates shorter links which also contain a chat window to exchange comments with your readers. It's also easy to share on Twitter, Facebook or email with one click.