So Twitter has been around for a while and I signed up to it over a year ago, not really understanding how or why to use it. A year on and I returned to my Twitter account as I heard more and more people talking about it.

A video introduction to Twitter from CommonCraft…

This is a very basic introduction to Twitter, and emphasises Twitter as a tool for keeping up with ‘family, friends and co-workers’ but it doesn’t tell us how we can use it to make new contacts, find out new information and other possible applications such as organisational twittering.

The best way to work out how to use Twitter is to start using it yourself. I’ve started using it to follow people in the Birmingham area with an interest in social media, web2.0, higher education, music – all the things that are relevant and interest me. I think your experience of Twitter depends a lot on the people you are following and how much you are prepared to interact. I have found my Twitter community very friendly and responsive and that is what keeps me going back to it. If you are experimenting with Twitter, I suggest you use Summize.com to search for things that interest you – for me it was ‘Birmingham’, ‘Warwick’, ‘University’, ‘PR’ etc. Then look at who they are following and you will soon develop your network. Any other suggestions on how to improve your Twitter network? How many people should you follow etc??

Commoncraft have produced a load of videos on different aspects of social media, social networking, podcasting, blogging etc. Think this one on social bookmarking is pretty useful – can think of many professional and educational uses of social bookmarking.