Neighborhood News & Notes – Twitterers, unite! Now that the world is doing it, we’d like to tweet with you, too

Have you twittered yet? From Shaquille O’Neil to Matt Lauer on The Today Show-even President Obama-people are increasingly plugging in to the social networking phenomenon known as Twitter.

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Only a few years ago, most of us relied on our pagers to keep us connected. Next it was cell phones. Soon those technologies were eclipsed by the Blackberry and, ultimately, blogging, and our world took yet further leaps toward communications nirvana.

Now it seems that Twitter has taken the spotlight, offering a way to connect people on the go, not only with their friends and families but with an entire network of folks, including many they don’t even know.

Here’s a quick overview for those who have not yet jumped on the Twitter bandwagon:

Simply explained, it involves sending a maximum 140-character cellphone message to those who are, well, “following” you.

The concept is so simple it almost seems ridiculous. People seem to be connecting by the millisecond, whether with friends, family, co-workers or celebrities, allowing all those who follow you via Twitter-thousands maybe, or theoretically even millions-to be updated with current information about what is going on with you at that very moment.

People use it for social purposes. Want to meet someone on your network for lunch? Simply send out a “tweet.” All the people in your network, e.g., your followers, will be alerted, and if someone is nearby, you could have an instant lunch date.

Realtor Nick Bastian, founder of RailLife.com, is a proponent of the network. He “tweeted” to his network on a dull Tuesday afternoon, and by 6 o’clock 60 people had joined him at happy hour. Not a bad way to wind down a slow work day.

I checked out President Obama’s Twitter network: His last post asked for people to join a program honoring Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. With almost 650,000 followers, my guess is he’ll have no trouble recruiting volunteers.

The list of celebrity tweeters is long, too, from Miley Cyrus to the prime minister of England. Following the daily updates can become addictive; it’s a voyeuristic view into the lives of others.

Twitter has a whole language that is simple to learn when sending your mini blogs.

Tweeting is the act of sending out a message. Your followers are the people who get your Twitter updates, and you can choose to get certain alerts delivered to your cell phone as text messages.

So far, this seems to be the best way to stay on top of your tweets, and to tap into the instant interaction that represents one of Twitter’s greatest appeals.

At Wrangler News, not wanting to be left in the communications dust, we’ve been experimenting with Twitter-not that any of us is a celebrity, but it seems to be a great way to find out what’s happening in our community in real time.

So far, we’ve experimented with sharing special offers from our advertisers with those who follow us via Twitter, and we’re exploring other ways to make the paper more interactive for you, our readers.

If you haven’t discovered Twitter yet, here’s a way to check it out. With Wrangler News, there’s no reason to worry about. There is no reason to feel uncomfortable checking out Twitter, just sign up and add a few followers.

Don’t worry about being “mis-tweeted”-other users are helpful to get the new “Twits(?)” up and running. Be sure to add Wrangler News to your network. We want to know what you’re up to.

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