This article is the first in a two-part series that explains the purpose and practical application of Twitter for benefits professionals.

If you're not yet using Twitter, you may think the ubiquitous site - that asks "What are you doing?" and gives you only 140 characters to answer - is just a bunch of nonsense and online noise. But, before you dismiss Twitter as just an Ashton Kutcher- and Oprah Winfrey-inspired fad, keep reading to learn more about Twitter and its value for benefits professionals.

What is Twitter anyway?

Twitter is a simple, public platform that lets you exchange information with people through short notes or "tweets." Anyone can read your tweets by "following" you (essentially, subscribing to your page) or viewing your profile page. You can also use countless search tools and third-party applications to search all the tweets based on keywords or topics of interest.

What makes Twitter interesting is that the millions of people using it are having short, ongoing conversations, ranging from simply entertaining or silly to detailed and thought-provoking. Many people describe Twitter as an online cocktail party, and while at first glance, there's just a bunch of noise, if you listen a little more closely, you'll see that people are exchanging interesting and valuable information and/or just having a good time.

Why is it valuable?

Twitter has many valuable applications - especially for business. SmartPulse, a weekly reader poll on social media, tracks feedback from leading marketers about social media practices and issues. Their May poll asked, "What is the primary way you use Twitter?"

•  42%: Staying on top of breaking news/trends.

•  23%: Broadcast messages and announcements about your company.

•  13%: Staying in touch with friends and family.

•  9%: Prospecting and lead generation.

•  8%: Monitoring what's being said about you or your company.

•  5%: Customer service.

Those are all very relevant for benefits professionals - particularly staying on top of news and trends and understanding what's being said about your company.

Using Twitter and observing the interactions is the best way to understand the value. All you have to do is sign up and you'll be started in no time.

Simply go to www.twitter.com to sign up. Use your real name or something close to it if you can. Post a good photo. Put some thought into your 160-character profile description.

Learn the lingo: @replies, DMs and RTs

Twitter has a language all its own that helps you communicate with others and vice versa.

For example, you can direct a tweet at another person using the @reply. This lets your reader know that you're responding to or directing that comment at someone specific, and the person you're talking to will see it in his or her browser. It is an easy way to "chat" on Twitter - but remember it is all public.

However, a DM, or direct message, is a private tweet; you send it only to one person and only they can see it. It is like Twitter's version of e-mail, but with a 140-character limit, of course.

You'll also see RT show up often on Twitter. That is short for "retweet" and it just means that you're passing along information that someone else posted. The original poster will likely thank you for the retweet, and that is a good way to grow followers.

You'll find that the Twitter community is very gracious and, in general, very polite; most people are generous with their "thank yous" and very conscientious to acknowledge where they get information.

#Hashtags

Hashtags are a way to tag a Tweet with a specific topic. Hashtags evolve and change quickly depending on what topics are hot on any given day. Many conferences send out a specific hashtag for attendees to use when tweeting. It allows anyone to easily follow a conversation or specific topic through search applications.

You can also see what topics are "trending up" - being talked about a lot - on any given day by following the hashtags on the side of your Twitter profile. When big news events are taking place, whether swine flu or an election, you can use hashtag searches to watch the conversation in real time.

Short urls

You'll also see a lot of nontraditional-looking urls in Tweets. They're just truncated addresses from many third-party applications, like TinyURL, that shorten long Web addresses so they don't take up so many precious characters in your tweets.

Get followers (or not)

Many people strive to gain new followers and attract attention from the Twitter community. This is the trickiest part of Twitter, and there is no magic formula for gaining followers - and it may not be something you need to worry about at all.

Whether you want to get a ton of followers or prefer to stick to a close group of colleagues or friends, my advice is to be authentic and be yourself. Don't overthink it, but tweets that are specific, relevant and have some personality will be most interesting to other people. You can post what you're reading, working on, doing or observing.

It's true, no one really cares that you're buying coffee or eating an apple, but if doing one of those things puts you in an interesting place with interesting people, it just may be worth a tweet.

Or, don't worry about posting frequently or luring followers at all. You can identify people or topics that you're interested in and observe the conversation and post when you have something to contribute. There are no set rules for how to use Twitter, and there is no reason you need to get a lot of followers.

Twitter don'ts

>> Don't have long conversations using the @reply feature. Take it to e-mail, phone or in-person.

>> Don't aggressively market yourself or anything else. Social media is most effective for the individuals and brands that are authentic. If you add value, people will appreciate your contribution.

>> Don't post anything you wouldn't want your boss, clients, coworkers, kids, mom or strangers to see. Remember, your Twitter profile is all public!

Get started! Benefits and HR people to follow

>> benefitnews - EBN's own Twitter feed, giving you all the news in 140 characters or less. ebneditor - EBN Editor-in-Chief Kelley Butler posts her take on the benefits news of the day and links to EBN's blog and podcast site.

>> benefitadviser - the Twitter feed of Employee Benefit Adviser, EBN's sister publication covering broker news and trends.

>> SHRM - the official Twitter presence of the Society for Human Resource Management.

>> IFEBP - International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans. Yep, they're tweeting, too.

>> kris_dunn - one of your own benefits peers, and blogger for hrcapitalist.com.

>> 401khelpcenter - a leading online source of 401(k) and financial planning news and information, offering great tweets on retirement news.

>> bjgrenier - if it relates to benefits and the law, she's got it.* EBRI - Employee Benefit Research Institute.

Jennifer Benz is the founder of Benz Communications. She can be reached at jen@benzcommunications.com or on Twitter@jenbenz.com.

Next month: More about using Twitter to broadcast messages and announcements about your company's benefits, its use for employee service and a profile of Ikea's use of Twitter for wellness communication.