The great thing about Twitter is that you define your experience and use it as you need it to be for you. Obviously recommendations from people you already connect with may be a great way for you to enhance that experience, but it should still be your choice on whether to use that information or not.

With the Apture plugin I use, if you hover over the link to the Twitter user, it shows their stream and the type of conversations they're having. This is still only from their side, so I generally recommend you check out the overall conversation as well. You can do this via Twitter search and typing in “Name A + Name B” and that will show you the discussion. It's a great way to see if it's the kind of thing that interests you.

Check the person's bio out as well – if they have a URL to a blog, have a look at that and see if it's your niche.

It's like starting any new friendship – you don't really know what someone's going to be like until you start interacting with them. And, just like friendship, if it's not for you and not working out, you can always move on (UnFollow) and hopefully have better luck the next time.

Hope this helps!

I guess I have a question that is a bit more basic. I'm nominally on Twitter. I currently only use it from my PC at home. I appreciate the recommendations that I follow these folk. However, in checking out one person and a Tweet, I'm not sure how to evaluate the recommendation. One Tweet seems very fragmented and no “pearl of wisdom” in and of itself. Of course, with a 140 character limit, and no context (i.e., conversation) it's difficult to judge. So, how might I experientially evaluate whether one of your pics is for me? Must I buy another device? What if I get overwhelmed with Tweets? What are my options in that case? Must I be on Twitter virtually 24/7 in order to get enough data to determine whom I want to follow (or not)?

Thanks. I see some poeple have millions of followers, but I'm wondering if this medium is for me or not. I am a great communicator, but have been known to claim to be an “introvert”. Moreover, context, and feeling like I can control if and when I'm in communication with others, make a difference for me. Suggestions appreciated.

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