People either love Twitter or hate it. I take that back - many people are still unfamiliar with it. Twitter is a micro-messaging social networking application. Use it via the Web to send short little bursts of news to other people on Twitter.

First, set up an account for free (for now) at www.twitter.com and write a short profile so folks know what you're about. Next, you find people to "follow." They, too, need a Twitter account. You need to know their user name (mine is margiedana). Don't worry, you can search for people by name there. Chances are, you already have friends or colleagues tweeting away. If you are interested in hearing what they post (or "tweet"), find their Profile and click on the word "Follow" underneath their photo/image,

The neatest feature is the fact you have to keep your "tweets" short - as in 140 characters max. You learn mighty fast how to get to the point.

Twitter is no substitute for email, phone calls or in-person meetings. But as a business person interested in keeping up with media, I love Twitter for the following reasons:

• I choose who to Follow.

• I choose who to Unfollow (it's that easy; go back to a person's profile and you can Unfollow them with one click.)

• My Home page on Twitter is mine and mine alone. So is yours. You only see posts from the people you're following.

• My Twitter home page (once I log in) is my go-to page for breaking news of all kinds.

• I can scan posts very quickly. I don't read every one, and neither will you.

• I love the interface. It is a clutter-free zone, unlike Facebook.

• It's an educational resource. I follow experts in printing and the graphic arts as well as experts in social media.

• It lets me spread my "brand" to my followers.

• I only tweet when I have something to say. No worries.

• I like that you can insert links in your posts, and you can shorten long URLs with one of many "URL shortening" apps. How cool is that?

In the two months that I've been on Twitter, there have been a lot more "printing" folks jumping on board. Bravo! I almost always follow anyone in our business.

I'm not interested in racking up thousands of followers. Quality, not quantity, as they say. I do not always follow people who follow me. My time is valuable, so I am choosy.

In our industry, I follow too many people to list. For economic updates as they pertain to printing, I follow Dr. Joe Webb, and so should you. His "handle" is wtterc.

I found someone on Twitter who's a self-professed "packagingdiva" and now, if I have packaging questions, who do you think I'll turn to?

Lately, I've been keeping current with the (sad) state of the newspaper industry. Always painful to read those posts.

I am hearing about/reading about all sorts of cool new printing apps from people I follow. Some of these turn into Print Tips. I'm also "checking out" potential speakers for our annual print buyers conference.

Lots of people abuse Twitter by doing nothing but self promote. Shame on them. When this happens, I simply stop following them. You should, too.

So my advice is not to be afraid of Twitter or be so quick to condemn it. Even though its original intent was for you to post an answer to "What are you doing right now?" I find very few people use it for this. Rather, we are using it to share snippets of news and knowledge. You can take it or leave it.

Who are your heroes in this business (or whatever topic you want to learn about)? Hopefully, they're tweeting. Find them and Follow them.