Twitter, what would I use it for?

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This last weekend I succumbed to internal pressure and signed up for a twitter account. I’ve looked at the whole Twitter bonanza for a while without really grokking what it could be used for. Meme spotting, perhaps. Getting to know what your closest friends are doing in real-time, perhaps. But what could you possibly say in 140 characters that could be of any significant interest outside the circle of your nearest and dearest? But I have this nagging feeling that someone someday will figure out something insanely great with Twitter. Better be prepared.

So, I tried it out, signed up my cell phone, twittered from it, then sent a twitter message to myself noting that twittering from my cell phone worked (what a stunning engineering feat). Then what? I tried to find anyone out there, finally located Rick Ross, the founder of the Java Lobby, and setup to follow him. I then read through the names of the people following Rick’s twitter, noticed a few people I knew (of), and followed them too, of course. The only way you know you exist is by the number of people you follow on twitter, right? In one of these lists of people I bumped into Guy Kawasaki. Of course I signed up to follow him too. After all, I’ve seen him live at a Garage event in Silicon Valley. I then went to bed.

Before falling asleep my mind fumbled with what to do if Guy signed up to follow me. After too many hours of sleep (just how often does that happen) I woke up, had breakfast and checked my mail. The first one told me that Guy Kawasaki was now following me on Twitter.

Here is ample time for a timeout. Guy Kawasaki is probably wealthy enough to do whatever he wants any time of the day, and he may be a worse tech junkie than me, but how could he possibly get anything done if he goes following just any schmo out there following him? And, what the heck could I possibly write in 140 characters that could be of any interest to him?

I wouldn’t mind him subscribing to my blog. After all, I write there fairly seldom, and when I do, I normally believe I have something to say. I’m not paralyzed, just stumped. I will probably wait a while before I send my next twitter. Not really because he might listen, but because I don’t really know what to say.