The beginning of a beautiful relationship... on Twitter?

I'd like to take a moment to talk to you about Twitter. Never heard of it? You will.

Twitter is one of the fastest growing social media sites today and probably the most well-known microblogging site. It asks users "What are you doing?" and gives them 140 characters to share what's on their mind with the rest of the world.

A couple of months ago, I became a member of the Twitter community. In my early tweet days, I sought out friends, interests groups, agencies, brands, media and news sources, and the occasional rockstar web celeb (See: Guy Kawasaki) to add to my list of followings (sort of like friends on Facebook, for you college readers out there who are widely more familiar with that platform). One of the web celebs that I have mentioned before in this blog and who I follow on Twitter is Gary Vaynerchuk, founder of Wine Library TV. Some time ago on his personal site, Gary posted a video which addresses many company hesitations in utilizing social media networks, like Twitter for example. In the video titled "It's not stalking, it's a darn handshake", Gary makes a great analogy, comparing those who fail to understand the importance of social media networks and use them to their advantage to attendees of a conference who stand in the corner of the room and watch as others engage in conversation. In a nutshell, what's the point of opening a Twitter or a Facebook account or starting a blog if you are not going to engage in meaningful conversations with people?

But how can you have a meaningful conversation with someone if everyone in the world can see what you are saying? To some people, reading about what people are saying and doing may seem like "stalking," as Gary points out. Well, my friends -- welcome to the age of transparency. We're not asking you to share your deepest darkest secrets. But we are asking you to share -- experiences, stories -- life.

Using Twitter to talk to people is great and can be very valuable to brands who seek instant consumer interaction, advice about how to offer them what they really want and ultimately drive consumer loyalty. But in Twitter world, you also have to make meaningful contributions to the Twitter gods. If you want to attract more followers, more people to test drive your brand, you have to give them something to talk about. Which leads me to one of my greatest fascinations with Twitter: The "Retweet".

I am a big fan of the retweet, known to experienced tweeters by the abbreviated (or otherwise "twitterfied") RT. My fascination with the RT lies in its simple concept: You say something, someone finds it worthwhile & (here's the kicker) shares it with others. In this way, Twitter has become a powerful word-of-mouth machine. So here's how it works:

Let's say I'm following @adrants for daily marketing and advertising news. I see on my Twitter page that @adrants has just posted a tweet that says this: What is Twitter and Why Should You Care? http://ow.ly/OuW. I'm intrigued because I am excited about Twitter and want to share the Twitter experience with others. So I retweet the message as so: RT @adrants What is Twitter and Why Should You Care? http://ow.ly/OuW. Immediately, everyone who is following me on Twitter (currently a grand total of 271 followers) now see the message that @adrants just posted. The great thing here is that there are now 542 eyeballs that have seen @adrants name and likely assume that because I have retweeted their post, I find them worthy to follow -- which means @adrants has probably gained a few followers just from my simple retweet. Ah, the beauty of symbiotic relationships.

I have found in my few months on Twitter that it is far more than the status stream it's founders originally conceived it to be. Yes, you can tweet about what you ate for lunch -- but what's the value in that, other than that Oscar Meyer might pick up on the fact that you still eat bologna sandwiches at the age of 42?

Twitter has been used as a creative outlet for writers. As a foundation for entrepreneurs to build their business. As a canvas for people to bring their personalities to life. It has been used to bring communities from around the world together for a wonderful cause. As a source of invaluable information that one cannot find on Google or Wikipedia. As a networking tool to help people find jobs. As a library of advice. As a platform to connect people to people, to brands, to ideas, and to ultimately inspire a new age of communication.

Each day, I find myself learning more and more about this wonderful tool and ways to optimize your time with different widgets and applications, like TweetDeck (pictured left), to get the most out of Twitter. No so coincidentally, I also find myself talking about it A LOT (and I don't mean just in the digital world).

Since I gave a talk about Twitter a month ago at an Ad Society meeting, I've noticed more and more advertising students at the University of Florida signing up for a Twitter page of their own. I still feel that there exists an overwhelming vast majority of people who have no clue what "a Twitter" is. But Twitter is most certainly gaining popularity and has started its filtration into mainstream culture. Celebrities from @britneyspears to @THE_REAL_SHAQ jumped on the bandwagon last fall and more are joining every day. Over the past month, I have seen increased chatter about Twitter in the news. Just this past week, Twitter has had shout outs on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno twice, the Ellen DeGeneres show, and Martha Stewart even talked about it on her show today with Mad Money host Jim Cramer.

So where's the future of Twitter headed? Critics have looked down on the lack of a business model with Twitter in its current form, which certainly poses the question: how will they bring in revenue in the future? They recently passed up a HUGE deal with Facebook (we're talking $500 Million huge), so it's my guess that they have something in the works and we will be seeing a lot new things from Twitter. Even co-founder Evan Williams realizes the best is yet to come.