Everything is getting shorter and faster these days. What used to be a get-together with your friends became a phone call. Long catch-up letters changed to emails, and now a quick txt message. The buzz these days is all about Twitter, the “microblog” service. Twitter taps into that trend. It's a service letting you tell people "what you're doing now.” These short posts are called tweets, and they can be links to interesting sites you've found, conversations with other twitter users, questions you want a quick answer to, what you're having for dinner, or even haiku poetry.

The main difference between twitter and txt is that when you send it out, it doesn't just go to a single recipient. It goes out to anyone and everyone who's opted to follow you — and can be forwarded (re-tweeted), or found by anyone unless you lock your account to private members only. On the receiving end, you're getting these updates from everyone you've chosen to follow. This constant flow of short messages to and from is called the “twitter stream.”

It can be a bit overwhelming at first. Just like modern life. In fact, it occurred to me that the people who get it and rave about it the most are the very same people who have achieved vast levels of success in this information age. So, with that in mind, here's a quick rundown on the top 15 success tips for twitter... and Life!

1. Fluff and filler are out.

Value used to be equated with size. This isn't true anymore. We're all busy these days, time is just as valuable as money (if not more so), and everybody loves short summaries. Twitter forces you to give them. In such a short update, you have no choice but to get to the point.

2. Be real.

140 chars is cut to the bone. You can't wear a fake character on top and still fit. There are a few twitter accounts based around characters, like Data, Deanna Troi and Jean Luc Picard from Star Trek, but not many.

3. Pick what's important.

You could use twitter to talk about your day down to the bowel movements, but then you'd have nobody following you. People follow you on twitter because what's important to you matches what's important to them, so share it!

4. To keep the relationship alive, feed it.

Share yourself, and your interests. If  you find something good and share it, your followers will appreciate the generosity. If you're not sharing anything but affiliate links or sales spiels, it's a single push of a button to unfollow you (stop receiving your updates), so you'll lose people.

5. Don't take following/unfollowing personally.

This may seem to conflict with the last point, but the truth is that as interests change, people will come and go. It happens faster on twitter than in real life, but it's no different. Accept it and just keep going forward. On the bright side, it's just as fast to connect with people who match your new interests!

6. Personalize it.

In one page, you can have the latest updates from your 10 best friends, your family, Hugh Jackman, Oprah, and a website with tips for using twitter. Nobody else will have exactly the same interests as you, so nobody else will see the same stream of updates as you do. (If they go to your twitter page, they see what you’ve posted, not what you've received.)

7. Don't get overwhelmed.

You don't need to drink the river, just drink FROM it. This is a major difference between big players and small fish. When you're getting updates from 50 or more people, it can look like a lot of reading, but you're not meant to read it all. Just find what interests you. You've got options like the “replies” tab to find any updates directed at you, and “direct messages” from people you follow will also show up in your email, so the important stuff will get through. Let the rest go.

8. Practice.

Start small with a few friends, and gradually grow your circle of influence. Even if you could jump in with 10,000 followers, you probably wouldn't know how to keep them long unless you'd developed the skill of catching and keeping interest. That skill will serve you well online and offline in ways you can't imagine...

9. Tap into it.

Twitter is instant, so it's great when you need to call for help. One tweet I got was from someone who'd flown interstate and forgot his power cord for his new Macbook Air. It was late at night, and he had to finish off a presentation for the next day. Someone following him on twitter lived nearby, arranged to meet up and lent him his own cord.

10. Enjoy unique perspectives.

Twitter is also a fantastic way to get firsthand newsflashes from people who are there when history happens. I'll never forget during the Inauguration seeing a series of tweets from ebenpagan. I can't think of anywhere else you could get this kind of behind the scenes glimpse...

• Crisp morning, walking down to watch the inauguration in DC!1:51 AM Jan 21st
• I lucked out, I'm literally on a terrace on the 10th floor overlooking the White House!3:40 AM Jan 21st
• Dig this view: http://twitpic.com/154er3:43 AM Jan 21st
• And this: http://twitpic.com/154h43:45 AM Jan 21st
• Literally just had the Secret Service "suggest" I not take any more pictures. Really.3:47 AM Jan 21st
• He told me that I "had the attention" of the snipers on the top of the White House. Crazy.3:55 AM Jan 21st
• Amazing to witness the peaceful transfer of power in a democracy.4:36 AM Jan 21st
• By the way, I wasn't joking about the Secret Service. That's a story for the grandchildren some day!4:38 AM Jan 21st
• Watching the new Pres. walk the last steps of the parade route, up to the White House8:28 AM Jan 21st
• Pic: http://twitpic.com/1593c 8:29 AM Jan 21st
• We talked a nice attorney into letting us hang out and view from his private INSIDE office. Pics without being shot. My favorite kind!8:34 AM Jan 21st

11. Tweets are faster than gossip.

If you like reading magazines about the latest exploits of Brangelina, just think how you'd enjoy receiving direct updates from Brad? On Twitter, there's nothing stopping you. In fact, some celebrities love having lots of people follow them. Ashton Kutcher made it a competition and got over a million. If you're into politics, you can get the latest news direct from Obama. You can even send messages back to them! Bear in mind, though…

12. The big fish swim in big streams.

They don't try to control the streams, just swim in them. Some people are following hundreds of twitter users. They don't read everything, but use tools to manage the flow. There are plenty of twitter tools like tweetdeck to help you manage your followers, filter out what you don't want and search for anything you're looking for.

13. Being part of that big stream is NOT a guarantee you'll have their attention.

A fish doesn't swim through every drop of water on it's way upstream. Just because someone like Tony Robbins or Oprah (or whoever the big names are in your own field) may be following you, doesn't mean they'll see and/or read your updates. They might, but there's a good chance otherwise.

14. To catch the attention of a big fish, you need to:

• send something past them just when they're looking at that part of the twitter stream;
• send something they're looking for so they hunt it down; or
• send something so catchy/helpful/viral that others keep putting it in front of them for you.

15. Have fun!

The people having the most fun are the ones you most want to hang out with. Twitter isn't meant to be serious, although you can use it to argue philosophy or discuss quantum physics if you want to. The point, though, is that it's a way to let people quickly and easily stay in touch and share those things that you just have to tell everyone about. Oh yes, and there IS a delete option (but of course that won't stop people who've already read your updates from remembering).

About the Author

Crystal N. Woods is a social analyst, futurist and part-time blogger at http://crystalsquest.com, where she shares her passion for transforming lives through building self esteem, which modern life is designed to erode. She's used simple, well known self-help techniques to improve her lifestyle and jump her income by at least 76.8%, not once but three times. You can also find her on twitter at http://twitter.com/crystalsquest