Twitter is a real time social media network that allows users to post short updates about what they’re doing to a timeline.  When you join twitter for free, you can see all the updates posted by people you “follow.”  Twitter is very simple and straightforward without the “fluff” off applications, games, photo albums, and other add-ons that other social media networks like MySpace and Facebook have.

It does take a little time to get the hang of the conversation and community there, but once you do, you can meet some great people and learn things you would have never known if it wasn’t for twitter.  The best way to do it though, is to just jump in and try it.

Here’s what you need to do to get started:

1. Go to Twitter.com
2. Click on “Get Started-Join”
3. Fill in the form and click “Create my account”
4. Input your account/profile/settings information
5. Then look for cool people to follow

To help get you started, here’s a bunch of softball people I’m following (after you’re logged in to your account, click on the links below then click on the “follow” button on these twitter people’s pages):

NCAA WCWS: http://twitter.com/NCAAWCWS

DI Coach Bill Vasko: http://twitter.com/CoachBook

Marc Dagenais: http://www.twitter.com/coachmarc

Steven Anderson: http://twitter.com/ATumblebug

Jessica Jobes (MittMate): http://twitter.com/JessicaJobes

Angela Tincher: http://twitter.com/ATinch1

STATE the Movie: http://twitter.com/statethemovie

We Play: http://twitter.com/weplay

Philadelphia Force: http://twitter.com/PhilaForce

ASA Softball: http://twitter.com/ASASoftball

Ringor: http://twitter.com/ringor

Big West Softball: http://twitter.com/BigWestSoftball

Barry Lovelace: http://twitter.com/barrylovelace

Fastpitch News: http://twitter.com/FastpitchNews

Oh yeah, and you can follow me at http://www.twitter.com/staciemahoe

There are also some pretty cool softball parents on twitter as well.  You may see me talking to them every now and then.  Any time you see me talking with other twitter users about softball, I’d suggest clicking on their twitter name to go to their page so you can see if you’d like to follow them too.  If so, just click on the “follow” button on their page.

I’m seriously thinking about doing some short tutorial videos to show you some twitter basics.  I’ll certainly let you know if I get those made!