Birds of a Twitter tweet together.

If you were watching 24 last night you may have seen the Sprint commercial that mentioned Twitter. You may have also seen product placement at its most blatant, but that’s a different story. During the commercial (watch here), a bunch of the familiar Twitter birds popped up on the screen as the voice over said:

“233,000 people just Twittered on Twitter. 26% of you viewing this have no idea what that means.”

This statistic, whether true or not, had me thinking once again how many people still have no idea what Twitter is, and if they do know, they’re still not sure why they would use it.

The latter is a conversation I’ve found myself having a lot lately as I espouse the virtues of Twitter as an excellent information portal. For example, I was telling my running friends how I learned about the Himalayan 100 mile stage race from a follower just by “tweeting” about a marathon I was running. Most recently I got a firsthand account from someone who had downloaded the latest update for Facebook‘s iPhone app after I had expressed concern that I may not like it. His instant “thumbs up” on the update gave me a credible answer within seconds. Another example is when I asked my “followers” where I should travel in Asia. At least five or six people replied with great suggestions that had me looking up flights and hotels that day.

And while most people seem to nod their heads as I share these examples of Twitter’s benefits (and why it’s worth wading through all the “noise” on it), I often sense a “I still don’t totally get it” look on their faces. That’s when I email them the “Twitter In Plain English’ video below prepared by the folks at Common Craft. It’s been online for awhile and still holds up today as it breaks down in super simple terms what Twitter is all about. If you’re new to Twitter, check it out (link to video) and see if it helps. Also check out Julia Angwin’s “How To Twitter” article in the Wall Street Journal, which chronicles her first steps into the world of Twitter.