Peter D. Marshall, a veteran filmmaker, asked on Twitter whether anyone had links for social media tips for a talk he's preparing. The talk is aimed at theater people and how to promote themselves using social media.

Now, I see a lot of musicians on MySpace, but I've so far only come across one on Twitter: Henry Rollins. (Not that I've actively searched, mind you.) He's not very active, and only follows 21 other Twitter accounts. Still, he establishes a presence and indicates when he'll be play somewhere next. He also divulges little tidbits that give a glimpse into his life. This has garnered him over 6,500 followers on Twitter.

Yeah, So?

Well it's like having a sort of subscription list if you are a performer, because then you can equate "follower" with 'fan" (most of the time). Now had you started to build these followers from scratch by asking the same 6,500 people to sign up for an official newsletter, you might not have the same response. But now that you have these followers, you can offer something, and because they feel they know you, it's possible that you'll get a much better response. (Just speculating.)

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At BusinessWeek, Stephen Baker has written his look at why Twitter matters - and he used to Twitter to do it. He asked several questions and got back over 250 replies.

I suppose it helps that he has over 700 followers. So far, none of the questions I've asked on Twitter have received a direct response. But I'm thinking there's probably a "critical mass" point in the number of people following you, after which you can ask pretty much anything and get a response. Which just reinforces why Twitter is a great resource.

Yeah, I'm drinking the Twitter koolaid now. Twhirl made me do it. And while it's still like tapping into a stream of multiple free-associations (not quite a hive mind), Twitter via Twhirl has actually increased my productivity and kept me updated on breaking events. Forget robot agents programmed to find stuff on the web. Use Twitter and follow the active blogger/ twitterers. All will be revealed on Twitter.

So how do you use Twitter? Do you just put info "out there", or do you use Twitter as a lead generator for your blog posts?

(If you want to follow me, I generally try to add people as soon as I have a chance - though I won't guarantee that I'll add everyone. You are welcome to drop your Twitter links in the comments as well.)

I keep noticing people questioning the usefulness of Twitter while using the service. The catch is that each of these people are—usually—using the website to "tweet" throughout the day. What fun is that? After all, if you were going to utilize a web browser, Jaiku would be the better option. The reason Twitter has become so popular is because of the third-party applications that have been developed for it, and if you’re not using, at the very least, a desktop client, you are missing a significant portion of the Twitter experience.

The desktop client gives you an almost instantaneous connection with your friends. In some sense, Twitter can act as a a huge resource for live news. People that provide links to great content on the web are worth following, and I am sure that, with time, Twitter will have tools developed for it to manage and save the information. Previously, I wrote about how useful Twitter can be to the dedicated blogger, and a desktop client is the way to maximize the usefulness.

Hopefully those of you that are still on the edge of your seat about Twitter will take my advice here and check out a desktop client. It will enhance the usefulness and fun with Twitter. I don’t think Twitter is worth much at all without these various applications, and it is no wonder why so many people that are new to Twitter think it is pointless; I did as well when I first started using it. So, I have decided to compile a simple listing of the various clients you can try. My favorite is Twhirl, but there are many great alternatives as well.

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After Perf's own James Mowery tore two strips off of me in the comments of my non-rant post, Twittering or Navel Gazing?, I went and used my Twitter account for only the second time since July 2007. I asked, "So help me out. Why do you love Twitter?" I'm not sure if Dan York was responding to me, but about 25 minutes later he tweeted about Dr. Moshe Yudkowsky's article on Twitter as a Technical Resource (in which Dan is mentioned as a Twitterer followed by over a thousand people - 1200+, in fact). Dr. Yudkowsky says,

If you haven't used it, Twitter is one of those "I don't think I get it" technologies... I'm fascinated by the capabilities of Twitter. Twitter is disaggregated: Twitter allows access to Twitter as a building block for other services. Now I've begun to wonder just where all this will lead.

In a similar vein, Chris Winfield writes Twitter Wrote This Column For Me. In it he explains how he asked several questions on Twitter and offered to link to the best answers - which he did, in his article. Of course, if you haven't realized it consciously, I used the same method to write this article. In fact, Alex at Geekpreneur says Twitter is a great way to stimulate ideas - for blog posts or otherwise - if your mind has gone blank.

Now these are some of the ways I'd be happy using Twitter, and I can't believe I didn't "get that" about Twitter until now. Why didn't I? A few reasons:

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RSS Awareness Day
Today is RSS Awareness Day. If you still don't know RSS is, check the RSSday.org site out to learn more.

Are You An Effective Blogger?
Learn the 7 habits of incredibly effective blogging. Number 1 (Have something to say) and #2 (Project your personality) go hand in hand. If you have nothing to say, it's kind of hard to project your personality.

Why Twitter?
For those who understand it (and I'm still learning), Twitter can actually be a great way to stimulate thinking and generate ideas. Watch for my "Twitter as Resource?" post later today. [Ref: Neil Patel's twittering.]

Web Developer Cheatsheet
Who needs to hire a site designer when SEOMoz is giving away their Web Developer Cheatsheet?

You've Got AdSense In Your Feedburner Feeds
Or you will have, soon, once Google finishes their Feedburner integration. Will this reduce feed scraping? I don't honestly know.

Google Ocean?!!
Google will be offering Google Ocean very soon, to join Earth and Sky. What will they index next? What's your guess?

Patrick Altoft of BlogStorm, who always writes great articles, suggests joining Twitter now or regretting it. Though I can't understand why. Am I dense? James Mowery suggested here the other day that Twitter is the blogger's new sidekick. But despite being an opinionated blogger who needs to write about the stuff I believe (in), I still feel no compulsion to use Twitter regularly. I am either too private to Twitter, or too dense to see any value that won't be regarded as "gaming" or even "spamming". Or both.

And despite not having used my Twitter account for nearly a year, I'm getting emails everyday about all the new people following me. So help me out here. Are you following me? What the heck are you following me for (or anyone, for that matter)? Seriously. I'm sure you don't want to read tweets of the "must shave back of hand again and tweeze unibrow by Friday" variety. Would you want to to see links to articles I've written wherever? Or are you after my deepest, darkest thoughts? Or are you hoping I'll follow you too and see whatever it is you have to Twitter? What exactly are you twittering? Why should I follow you, too?

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I have recently jumped into the Twitter madness—check out my Twitter page if you don't believe me. Not only is it a fun addiction, it is actually a useful tool for bloggers as well. So, why should you even bother with Twitter? Did I mention it is an addiction?

Ah yes, it is that very site which provides you the opportunity to express yourself within 140 characters or less. Twitter is quickly becoming a big deal, and it is an opportunity for bloggers to reach out interactively with others. Think of it this way—no longer must you sit and wait for people to visit your blog. You can connect to people instantly.

Many people don't even understand why Twitter is so appealing (others don't have the slightest clue as to what it is), but those that realize the true potential of Twitter will have another tool at their disposal to help them build their image, reputation, community, availability, etc.

Twitter was designed to be a mini-blogging service, but that is only the beginning; it has many more potential uses and benefits. Now is the time to consider joining the fray!

Why Tweet?

1. Loyalty and Respect

If you want to be a popular blogger, there are ways to build up loyalty within your readership—one that is relatively easy to accomplish is by making yourself accessible to your readers. Twitter is probably one of the most exciting and interactive ways to do just that. You are accessible, you show that you are openly responding to people, and you become interested in your peers' activities. You will earn respect and loyalty by many people this way.

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As a web publisher I get a lot of ideas for my sites, and sometimes I don't take time to write them all down. So I've created a twitter account just for my sites. It's call an Idea Streaming Account. It's an organic place to place ideas that I want to reflect on and let incubate for awhile before I do anything with them. It's a private place for ideas that I can reflect on and see if they are going to work for me. Some of the advantages of having limits on the length of your ideas include creative sandboxing. Creating limits for your ideas can box you in or it can allow you to have an automatic starting point.

I've created an account just for my poetic creations. Each poem starts out with only 140 characters. To me this is like creating a new form of poetry. Short sentence structure poems that are great starting places for future works. It's a great place to store ideas for when I'm creatively challenged and need a shot of Performance Enhancing Ideas to launch my day of poetic creation.

The cool thing is I can do this with multiple sites, each site having a creative storage bin and an endless flow of ideas that can go on and on until I have no more ideas left to share with myself or other members of the team. I can add as many members of the sites to collaborate with me on the various projects and keep a natural flow of ideas trickling down the brook commonly known as work.

Quite a few times recently I have been asked why if I am ditching social media sites such as Facebook I am still putting so much effort into Twitter. Well, the simple answer is I get a lot of enjoyment and a reasonable amount of professional benefit from the service. You just have to know how ...

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Ok. People who know me know that I'm the slowest new tech adopter in the Western Hemisphere. I like to let things age, and get tested by the omniscience of time. Seems like Twitter is the real deal. Most of you probably have known it for a long time. I'm slow and lazy.

Anyway, I'd like to follow you on Twitter. So if you Twit(ch) please post your URL in the comment section.

Oh, my Twitter address is:
http://twitter.com/RyanCaldwell