Twitter - From Ho-Hum Boring To Exciting And Addicting

You finally have a Twitter account set up. You're following three of your friends and they are following you, but you don't really 'get it' yet. Yes, you are following your friends, but these are friends you can call, email, chat or Skype with, and you just don't understand what all the excitement is about. If this is an issue for you, as it is for many, take a different approach to see what makes Twitter so unique and interesting. To watch Twitter expand into all it can be, ask yourself what you are most interested in. For instance, you might be interested in raw foods, gardening and holistic health. Maybe you drive a Prius, listen to NPR and love wine. Perhaps you are crazy about your dogs and love fashion and celebrity news. Also, make a list of your favorite personalities - do you love Oprah, read Twilight, or pour over the Mayden Chronicles blog every chance you get? Do you watch Lost and the Biggest Loser? Whatever the case may be, your interests and the people who share them is what Twitter is all about. Get ready to find interesting people! Find People on Twitter The easiest way to find people that you already know is to use the 'Find People' link, located on the navigation bar on the top, right side of the page. You can type in someone's twitter handle if you know it, invite your friends by email, or use your email client (gmail, yahoo, aol, hotmail, or msn) to send a note to all your mail contacts, inviting them to follow you or to join twitter. While all of this is mildly interesting, you already know these people. The only exciting tab on the 'find people' link is 'suggested users', which allows you to view users that twitter suggests. Today the list of suggestions includes NPR, Al Gore, A Fine Frenzy (band), John McCain, and CNN. Simply click 'follow' on their profile to watch what they are saying. Search Real-Time Tweets The less noticeable, but infinitely more interesting way to search is located in the navigation at the bottom of the twitter page. It says simply 'Search'. Click this link to go to a page that allows you to search twitter real-time to see what people are saying. For instance, if you would like to find out what people are saying about the Prius and hybrid cars in general, type in 'Prius' and watch the conversations pop up. These posts, otherwise known as 'tweets', are happening right now, at this very moment. If you see an interesting conversation, link or person, you can follow the people tweeting and join in on the conversation if you want. By searching the term 'Prius', I just found two people I would like to follow: 'Best Hybrid Cars' and 'All About Prius'. This is also a great way to find what is being said about real-time news, politics, and celebrity gossip. Twellow.com - Location and Keyword Search My favorite way to find new people to follow that are either share my interests or my location is found at Twellow - website Twellow searches in a way that twitter does not: it searches based on people's location and bio. If you want to follow others in Raleigh, NC, just type in 'Raleigh' and it will pull up all of the people in Raleigh. From there, you can view what they are saying and see if you would like to follow any of them. You may find friends, your favorite stores and shop owners, local celebrity personalities, and even a few new people that seem interesting. In addition, Twellow.com is a great place to find others with similar interests. By searching keywords in people's bios, Twellow makes it easy to find others interested in holistic health, raw food or Twilight. Follow those people to make interesting new friends with your specific interests. If you do these three searches, I almost guarantee that you will finally see what all the excitement is about when it comes to twitter, and you may even find yourself saying what people all over the world are saying, "Twitter is exciting and addicting!" The author of this article is Tim Moore, who maintains a profile on twitter called Former Examiner