Unlike some people, I maintain a good relationship with e-mail. I keep my inbox empty (see Empty your inbox), and junk mail no longer wastes my time.

Because I’m almost always too busy for microblogging and random chatting, I use Twitter only occasionally and instant messaging even less. Nevertheless, I’ve discovered that in certain situations, Twitter is a better way to communicate than e-mail.

Twitter has caught fire across many professional fields as well as personally, but it seems to be in the beginning stages in the realm of higher education. The creative ways Twitter users have incorporated microblogging has become inspirational, so the recent trend of using Twitter at college is sure to keep evolving into an ever more impressive tool. Make sure you don’t get left behind by incorporating some of these educational and fun ways that Twitter can be used in the college classroom.

Communication

Twitter offers new and exciting ways to open up the lines of communication in the classroom. Find out some of the ways it can work with this list.

The rules of e-mail etiquette are not "rules" in the sense that I will come after you if you don't follow them. They are guidelines that help avoid mistakes (like offending someone when you don't mean to) and misunderstandings (like being offended when you're not meant to). These core rules of e-mail etiquette help us communicate better via e-mail.

According to a survey conducted by Liberty Mutual’s Responsibility Project, 56% of Americans think it’s “irresponsible” to friend your boss on Facebook, while 62% of bosses agree it’s wrong to friend an employee.

Reuters reports on other interesting results from the survey, including that 73% think it’s not OK to check Facebook at work, but 66% say checking personal e-mail is fine. Tweeting while at work is considered irresponsible for 72% of respondents, and watching online videos is wrong for 79%.

Because it's just a messaging platform, Twitter is far less complex than Facebook. Nevertheless, misuse and abuse seem at least as common on the former as on the latter. Some of our favorite Twitter etiquette rules follow.

Google recently announced Google Buzz, a service intended for the social networking crowd that turns a normal Gmail account into a social media powerhouse.

Google Buzz is "a new way to start conversations about the things you find interesting and share updates, photos, videos and more," according to the Google announcement. It will be rolling out to Gmail users over the next few days and is already available to smartphone users at buzz.google.com.

You probably know that YouTube is, by far, the top video destination on the Web.

Here are some things about YouTube, though, that you probably don’t know:

Retweeting is an integral part of the Twitter experience. The retweet (or “RT”) allows Twitter users to share the best links, tweets, and gems they find from others using the service. But for beginners, it’s not immediately obvious what retweets are, or what tools to use to make retweeting easier. Learn what you need to know here.

Sticks and stones can break your bones, but tweets could break your bank account.

It's a lesson being brought home south of the border where incautious outbursts on the micro-blogging service Twitter are landing their authors in court.

It's amazing the trouble 140 characters can cause you.

Businesses can form instant direct relationships with their customer bases simply by signing up and using the service regularly, and according to the models Twitter is trying out, they will soon be able to advertise to the Twitter community as well. It has grown into a behemoth that is hard to get your hands around, which is why we’ve put this article together for you.