If you’ve not heard of Twitter the question is not, ‘What are you doing?’ but rather ‘Where have you been?’:Twitter is a hot tech topic and has become the biggest buzzword of the moment.

In fact, it was reported this week that Twitter – among other social networking sites like Facebook and other personal blogs – is being used more than e-mail. Indeed, e-mail is quickly becoming the new snail-mail as more fast-paced means of communication, like Twitter, are taking over. If you like to drop a few statistics into conversation to impress your friends, according to market research, number of Twitter users has grown by over 1,000% over the last year.

But what exactly is it and what does it do? Basically, you sign-up for an account and simply answer the question, ‘What are you doing’ in 140 characters (about the length of a text message). This gets published to every person who is your Twitter friend and is ‘following’ you in the form of a live stream of messages. In return, you receive the messages from everyone you choose to ‘follow’.

Many view it simply as a social networking tool, an online chatting space or a real-time discussion forum. But it’s also used by big businesses to advertise their corporate messages. What’s more, Twitter has helped to raise a lot of money for charity, saved a student protestor from an Egyptian prison, helped Obama in his presidency campaign, released the first photograph of the plane crash in the Hudson River in New York, given the media real-time information about the Mumbai terror attacks, told us what Stephen Fry is eating for breakfast and made us believe Britney had a case of ‘vagina dentata’ when her account was hacked. What more could you ask for? When all is ‘tweet’ and done, it seems it’s how you use it that defines it.

Since the Twitter phenomenon has swept the U.S. (where it was founded) into frenzy, it has been making its way across Europe – and the world – and as more and more people sign up for accounts, world domination looks more likely.

The short, sharp exchange of wordy delights – or mere insight into the mundane lives of your friends, family and colleagues – also provides the opportunity for a little celebrity spotting. Oodles of celebrities, radio DJs, authors, artists and general creative types have jumped on the band wagon giving you the chance to spark conversation with your favourite people from the far-flung land of stardom.

From career networking opportunities to dating (check out @reboundfinder) – or even a bit of forgivable celebrity stalking – Twitter’s tiny messages provide a multitude of possibilities. Who knows where it will go and whether it will last. But who cares? Twitter is not asking, ‘What will you be doing?’; it is asking, ‘What are you doing’ now? And Twitter is of this moment.

Don’t forget to follow Running in Heels on Twitter @RIHmagazine!

Top 5 Twitter Tools

Once you’re a Twitter veteran, it’s good to have a few Twitter web tools under your belt for a more dynamic Twitter experience…

1. Twittervision – http://twittervision.com

This site allows you to see where people are twittering from by providing a visual representation of Twitter through a real-time geographical map of tweets. Surprisingly addictive.

2. Mr Tweet – http://mrtweet.net

The elusive Mr. Tweet is a great friend to have. Simply sign up to his site and he will send you an e-mail of all the people he thinks you might like to follow according to your interests. Networking the easy way: someone else doing it for you.

3. Twit or not – http://twitornot.com

Punish your friends for their boring tweets by adding them to the ‘Twit or not’ application. This compiles a list of the most boring twitterers and shames them.

4.Cursebird – http://cursebird.com

Been swearing too much? See just how much. Cursebird tells you how good you’ve been – or not as the case may be – in your tweets.

5. Twitterholic – http://twitterholic.com

You’ve been twittering for a while now, you’ve probably got more followers than following and you’ve entered into many conversations with people you hardly know about the sandwich you’re eating/last night’s TV/how tired you are at work. It’s time to see where you are rated in your area. This site gives you a ranking based upon your interaction.