If you’ve turned on your TV in that last few months or so, you’ve probably heard about something called Twitter. News reporters on TV, news reporters in print, radio personalities etc. all are talking about something called “Twitter.” You may have asked yourself at some point recently:

“What the heck is Twitter?”

In a nutshell, Twitter is a micro-blogging website or service. What you do when you micro blog, is that you post a short message or blog post to your account. Twitter limits you to 140 characters or less, but there are other sites that are less limiting, and others that are more limiting.

Using twitter, you have 140 characters to convey the message that you want to get across. A feature of twitter, is that you have the option of reading other people’s blog posts, or tweets, as the occur in real time by “following” someone. Not like a stalker, but just following their tweets. The person that you follow, has the option to follow you back, if they so choose.

Some people have taken the approach that the number of followers that you have is a score card to determine how successful you are. Meaning, the more followers you have, the more successful you are. I don’t subscribe to that school, but to each their own.

The big joke, is that no one wants to read what you had for lunch or for dinner, or where you went just now. Although there is a lot of traffic about what people had for lunch, or dinner, etc. There is also a lot of meaningful commentary going on as well.

For example, in December of 2008, a plane skid off the runway in Denver, CO. A passenger on the plane sent out a tweet reporting that they just skid off the runway. Someone in a different plane tweeted that they saw the plane skid off, and a third person in the terminal tweeted what just happened as well. 3 different reports of the same event.

Pictures of the terrorists that perpetrated the attack in Mumbai India were all over the twittersphere. People at the hotel that was attacked were sending out twitter messages to their friends, family and rescuers.

Lastly, when the plane crashed into the Hudson River in New York in January 2009, news of the crash and pictures of the plane in the water first broke over twitter and its associated applications.

Twitter is more than a tool for reporting and reading news though.

Lots of people are connecting with people that they would have never had access to. Not just famous people, but regular folks like you and me on opposite sides of the planet are able to find each other thanks to the power of a 140 character message.

Because people have the option to follow one another, people are making real time connections with other like minded people across the globe. Old friendships are being rekindled and new one are being formed everyday. Come join the conversation at twitter.com