Hey all, we’ve all heard a lot about Twitter. So much lately that I decided to read up on it, and decide if I should try it out or not. What I kept reading was the same message, its growing too fast to avoid, and many liken it to how Facebook rose to such prominence in the past year. Twitter is no Facebook, but the charts show it is growing at a similarly huge rate that cannot be ignored. John Chow, a big time blogger, gave simple advice - Get started on Twitter today!! Darren Rowse of Problogger is also a big supporter of Twitter, he has over 30,000 followers too. Think of the value of that, free communication with a list of over 30,000 people, I’m sure he is getting good value out of his account.

I am just tip-toing around still, learning what I can as I begin to play with my Twitter account. Stay tuned for a possible Twitter Contenst idea I have…I’m thinking a creative contest could be a great way to promote your new Twitter account, I’m thinking of doing one in March or April.

So what is Twitter anyway…For those of you on Facebook already, imagine this… Twitter is really just a whole site set up around the idea of your ’status’ update message on Facebook. You know that sentence or so you can update on your account that lets your friends know what you are up to… On Twitter, that is it, a list of status updates from other Twitter account owners.

On Twitter, you only get 140 characters per message, and when you send it out it gets sent to the accounts of all of your followers. When you follow someone on Twitter you are their friend, people who follow you are followers.

The name of the game on Twitter is becoming a part of the community by chatting it up with like minded people. You can add value to discussions through your participation, and you will get value by listening to the chatter. I throw a question out from time to time & am impressed with the great answers I get. I think its a great tool for individuals, and I think it can also drive traffic to websites which is a benefit to people like me who blog or run a business.

Follow me on Twitter and I’ll follow you! Here is the link to my account page: My Twitter Account (@aaronabber)

Here is a great article I just read from Kevin Rose, the founder of Digg, it covers 10 ways to increase followers on your Twitter accoung.

Keep the discussion going in the comments. What do you think about Twitter? Let me know which Twitter applications or websites are your fav’s.