Twitter is like the Facebook status messages.  Why not just use Facebook then?  Because I use Facebook to connect with family and friends.  For me it is for personal use.Twitter allows me to connect with interesting stangers and share information.

I joined the Twitter community (@tomshepp) a few weeks back and I have been somewhat impressed:

• You can build a social network quickly as long as you are participating.  This means following people of interest, tweeting regularly, and retweeting posts.
• There seems to be some difference of opinion about following everyone that follows you.  Some think it is only polite and others say it is not necessary since you can't possibly follow everyone.  I try to follow everyone that follows me but I am finding it difficult to keep up with it.  As of right now I'm following 769 people.  Some are more active then others but I can't read all the tweets of people I follow.
• I use TweetDeck and I like it that I can organize followers into groups.  I read posts from my favourites and if I get time I skim through the rest.
• I have found that there are a lot of marketers on Twitter and a lort of people preoccupied with their own Twitter status (numbers of followers).  Amusing.  I agree numbers is important in a social network, but I am not sure about the setting limits.
• I focus on people in education and technology.  I also follow a few news organizations.  It is important for your own sanity to focus on what type of interaction and information is important to you.
• I am finding Twitter can be addictive and time-consuming.  It is like I plugged into a world where I would not normally have access to the kinds of people on Twitter anywhere else.

I like Twitter and I am finding a lot of valuable information but I am not sure about the amount of efffort vs reward.  I guess my Twitter experience will continue while I see some benefit.