As Twitter surges toward an estimated 12 million registered users by year’s end, some of us are starting to deal with what we recently dubbed “followholism.” You’ve followed so many people, it’s hard to keep up, and it’s probably time to do a little housekeeping.

But where do you begin? Twitter?

In this Twitter Tutorial I show you a very powerful combination of the Top Twitter Tools and how I use them in conjunction with each other to get the most out of Twitter and your tweets for personal use and/or for using Twitter for business or Twitter for marketing. I go through this very fast so you may have to pause or re-watch a few times.

You'll be tweeting like a pro in no time with this Twitter Tutorial that shows how I use the Top Twitter Tools with Twitter, and maximize my experience as well as the effectiveness of my tweets with a few of the top Twitter tools to use in conjunction with each other for personal use, using Twitter for business or using Twitter for marketing. The links to resources I mention are as follows:

Hashtags: http://hashtags.org
Ping.fm: http://ping.fm
HootSuite: http://hootsuite.com
TweetLater: http://tweetlater.com
Twollo: http://twollo.com
Twitter Local: http://twitterlocal.net
TweetDeck: http://tweetdeck.com

Please share this video with fellow Tweeters as the entire Twitter community will become better as a result of the tips, tricks, strategies, and tactics shared within this video.

As Twitter surges toward an estimated 12 million registered users by year’s end, some of us are starting to deal with what we recently dubbed “followholism.” You’ve followed so many people, it’s hard to keep up, and it’s probably time to do a little housekeeping.

One of the most fundamental rules of social networking etiquette: You must carefully consider who you "friend" or "connect" with on services like Facebook and LinkedIn. According to career experts, the people with whom you associate, in many ways, reflect upon you.

I recently completed developing and recording two modules for a business blogging program with the DMA. One of the most interesting portions (in my opinion) of the material addressed measuring blog success. There’s no one right answer because the purpose for business blogs can vary from branding to sales.

Since bloggers often read other blogs, I’m counting on people to take this quick poll to identify what the most common goals for business blogging are. Then, you can see the results.

When company executives speak publicly, they become part of their customer’s brand experience, and that’s especially true when those executives venture into the Twitterverse.

Probably to the horror of their handlers, many corporate leaders are starting to ask questions about Twitter, and some are already using it and speaking directly to customers. That’s great, but it can also be potentially perilous, at least in terms of the brands they represent. If you’re a CEO, President, VP or other executive, stepping out from behind the curtain exposes both you and your brand to intimate scrutiny.

Blogs are spreading faster than kudzu in the business world. Why? “Because, when done effectively, they are a great marketing, sales and public relations tool for corporations or entrepreneurs,” said Barbara Giamanco, CEO of Talent Builders Inc., which helps professionals attract business and increase sales by using social media strategies and tools.

“You know it works when you start getting calls from people you don’t know who want to work with you,” she said. Recently, Giamanco garnered a major corporate client. A friend had referred her, but before calling, he did an online search, and read her LinkedIn profile and her blog, which relates to her core competencies of sales, people development and social media technology. “He liked what I had to say, so before he even met me, I had made an impression as a professional with credibility and integrity,” Giamanco said.

It feels like the 18th century all over again. All that daily correspondence, all those long hours spent hunched over a desk, composing some thoughtful missive about one's dowry or the Jacobite rebellions. Signed, "Yr humble servant."

Same deal now, basically, except we're not clutching quills; we're writing a passel of e-mails and clicking "send" on ye olde BlackBerry.

And something else isn't quite the same: Unlike the heroes and heroines of epistolary novels, we aren't blessed with time-tested formal guidance on the correct way to sign off.

Microblogging platform Twitter has 32 million users, an increase from about 2 million a year ago, according to research mentioned in the Wall Street Journal. Some Internet measurement services show that figure increasing 50% to 100% month over month.

While it is not clear that Twitter will become as large as social networks MySpace and Facebook or video-sharing site YouTube, the company could certainly have 50 million visitors by the end of the year.

As I was in the final throes of getting my most recent book into print, an employee at the publishing company sent me an e-mail message that stopped me in my tracks.

I had met her just once, at a meeting. We were having an e-mail exchange about some crucial detail involving publishing rights, which I thought was being worked out well. Then she wrote: “It’s difficult to have this conversation by e-mail. I sound strident and you sound exasperated.”