I didn’t get it when I first joined. A lot of my colleagues/friends don’t get it either. I think I am getting a better handle on it, so let me try to put together a quick overview

How to make the most out of twitter

1. download TweetDeck (Adobe AIR) application. I was using the web only for months, until I discovered TweetDeck. WOW, what a difference it makes. Most powerful tool: you can search for a term (example “coupons”) and you can keep monitoring the tweets with the would “coupons”
2. follow people that you might want to have a conversation with. how do you find people who aren’t your friends already? search for some terms! (see step one) Follow people wiht @replies and RT (retweets) because they probably are more conversational. Follow brands, webistes, and you can almost use twitter as an RSS feed.
3. Join some # chat parties. You’ll start seeing them when you’ve followed enough people.
4. Sign up for TwitterFeed so all your latest blog posts (via RSS) will get posted onto twitter. If you have a website/email list, link to your twitter page so users can communicate with you there.

Tips: Don’t try to follow too many people too quickly or they think you’re spamming. Try to have some updates before you start following anyone.

Still learning myself, but that’s what I know so far!