I can admit it. I'm plus size and I twitter. I'm addicted to it actually but I guess there's really no surprise there. I've been vaguely familiar with this social networking venue for some time. It has always made me curious and I have always enjoyed the little twitter widgets on blogs but somehow I couldn't bring myself to build the nerve to venture in.

Twitter, if you are not familiar with it, is a social networking platform that allows us to tell people in 140 words or less what we are doing. It's practically in real time. Like online chatting. I'm pretty sure the word limit has completely ruined my grammar as I'm constantly having to chop out words to get my message updated. I'll admit that sometimes I cheat and split one thought into two posts.

If you are going to venture into the realm of Twitter then there are two places I also want to recommend to you to improve the experience. The first is Tweet Deck (www.tweetdeck.com), an adobe application that you can set up to organize the tweets (the updates sent via Twitter) you receive from the people you are following. It also has this nifty alert signal, don't worry you can turn it off, to let you know when there's a new message. The best part is that it refreshes itself unlike a browser. You can have a little icon on your desktop and click on it to open when you go online or whenever you feel the urge to see what's going on. This application improved my Twitter experience 100%.

The second is Twitter Search (search.twitter.com). Here you can search for topics of interest to you then follow those people who you find interesting. For example if you are a huge fan of LOST. Then search for lost to see what others are saying. If you find someone interesting you can then click to see their profile, other updates they have sent, or follow them (when you follow them it's like adding them to your address book). You can search for any topic -- walking, weight loss, Twilight and of course plus size or BBW. Since I'm the editor of a plus size website and plus size shopping blog (and I'm also plus size) one of the first searches I did was for plus size because I wanted to network with like minded people. I like to read profiles and the last twenty comments before I decide to follow someone, if there are two or three things I can relate to or like then I follow them. If someone has a link in their profile I tend to check it as well before I follow. It was only a few weeks before I ventured outside my comfort zone.

An important feature besides follow is "block". I use it at least once a day to block someone from following me so they can't read my posts and so I don't have to see their posts in my profile page. Reasons for blocking? Something about their profile or updates rubs me the wrong way. If they have more people they are following than the number of updates they've made then chances are they are spamming. I'm talking obscene numbers here; like 3 updates and 2500 following.

I participate in a number of social networking tools. Myspace, facebook, Gather, Hi5, Linked In... but Twitter, by far, is the easiest to use. If you are going to venture into the world of Twitter (or if you already have), then follow me and I'll follow you too.