Back in July of 2007 I signed up for a Twitter account. Someone mentioned it in an article and I thought I’d check it out. It wasn’t until February 2008 when a group of bloggers on BlogCatalog decided to follow one another that I began to participate. Still, I wondered about the value of using the site.

Last summer I noticed some local screen names that had regular conversations about local topics. Then there was a lunch meet-up invite. Well, I went and ate lunch with a group of local bloggers. After that I added more screen names of folks I met that day.

After Gustav, several of them posted information about the conditions back in the New Orleans. I was still up in Memphis trying to decide when to drive back home. Also, a local weekly newspaper, that I follow, was giving updates via Twitter.

During the past year, I’ve enjoyed checking out articles, photos and videos that others link in their messages. Some folks are very witty with their messages.

Before leaving my house Thursday afternoon I was skimming through tweets. I then went to the newest tweets that came in while I was reading older messages. Many of them had to do with the plane that went into the Hudson River. One tweet even mentioned seeing the plane go by his apartment as it descended. It's a different way to read about events taking place.

Recently Mashable posted a couple of articles to help users choose “who to follow” and “how to get followed.”

The 10 Users You’ll Meet on Twitter

FOLLOW FAIL: The Top 10 Reasons I Will Not Follow You in Return on Twitter

On Thursday Twitter launched this "follow" suggestion tool: Find people. Follow them. There is also a site called TwitterGroups that may be useful for finding like-minded users. If it helps you to see whom I am following and the messages they are posting, you are welcome to do so.

Search for Twitter has returned. It's useful for finding specific topics among users.

Previously I posted a list of my bookmarks.

Already there are two books available on Twitter:

Twitter Revolution: How Social Media and Marketing is Changing the Way We Do Business and Market Online by Deborah Micek & Warren Whitlock (foreword by Robert Scoble)

Twitter Means Business: How Microblogging Can Help or Hurt Your Company by Julio Ojeda-Zapata

Folks who want to trade follows are welcome to post them in comments here. On Twitter I am dotartdude. Keep in mind that this phenomenon is still evolving

One last thing . . . For the experience to be worthwhile, a user should follow others that interest her/him. It may mean pruning a follow list at regular intervals.