Many of us in the Running Blog Family have taken advantage of new fangled technology called Twitter. Many runners probably first learned about Twittering from the podcaster Steve Runner who, with the help of his son, twittered his way through this year’s Boston Marathon.

My “twitterverse” or my universe of Twitter has quickly grown with lots of running friends, most of whom I’ve never met except through blogging and e-mail. In the past month or so that I’ve been active in Twitter I’ve encouraged other runners and they have encouraged me. Especially after finding this blog post with a list of running tweeps.

So What is Twitter? Simply, Twitter is the most popular micro-blogging site on the web. The official definition is:

Twitter is a service for friends, family, and co–workers to communicate and stay connected through the exchange of quick, frequent answers to one simple question: What are you doing?

Twitter will help you fill in the gaps in-between blog posts about what is going on in your friend’s lives. Common Craft has a great video that might help you understand Twitter a little better.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ddO9idmax0o

Still not convinced you need Twitter? This article written by a CEO Twitterer is what convinced me to take the leap and now I’m hooked to this 140 character phenom. I say go on over and try it out today!

You can find my Tweets here.

I will say that initially I used Twitter every few hours, but now have gotten into a more realistic mode of posting every few hours and tend to post more highlights, while many people post lots of little details of their day.  I have also seen tons of encouraging tweets from runners to other runners who are struggling to get on the road or with other personal issues.  If you have 5 minutes a day and want to meet some other great runners and people – Twitter is the way to go.  It might be a little over-hyped but it is a great tool.

[tags] Twitter, Running Blog Family, Micro-Blogging [/tags]