Now keep your hand up if you've checked out Twitter and don't understand what the big deal is. I mean, why putz around reading a sea of dispatches from narcissistic hipsters, obsessed with what they had for lunch, when you've got real work to do? OK, your hand's still up. Good. Don't worry. Your reaction is perfectly natural for any sensible adult.

But, you shouldn't judge Twitter by your first impression. I'm not going to tell you to join the cult and drink the Kool-Aid. But, I am going to tell you why Twitter might be worth a second look. I'll also offer you some strategies for making the most of Twitter, should you decide to set up shop there.

Read on and ... put your hand down already. You look silly.

Who's on Twitter?
My personal observation -- and that of the Web traffic trackers at Quantcast -- is that a good chunk of Twitter's audience is comprised of young, tech-savvy adults. There's a higher-than-average percentage of users with at least an undergraduate education. Females slightly outnumber males.

By Quantcast's estimates, 6 million unique monthly U.S. users are hitting Twitter via the Web. This alone makes Twitter the third most popular social networking site, behind MySpace and Facebook. This also means you ignore Twitter at your own peril.

While Quantcast pegs the Twitter audience at just 1/13th that of Facebook's, we're still talking about a rabidly loyal following. The Pew Research Center suggests 76% of Twitterers (or "tweeple", if you prefer, although that sounds vaguely dirty) use the Internet wirelessly, via a laptop, PDA or cell phone.

With dozens of mobile Twitter apps out there, tweeple are accessing Twitter from just about everywhere. More than just a microblog service, Twitter gives people a streamlined, simple interface for keeping in touch with friends, sharing news and information, and connecting with a worldwide community of geeks.

If you think your business might benefit from partaking in this communal stream of consciousness, keep on reading.

Build your audience
I'm not going to waste your time with a step-by-step guide to using Twitter. The site's straightfoward help section is rather ... uh ... helpful and I won't duplicate it here. Let's just assume you've figured out how to create an account and tweet, that is, post a 140-character bulletin for the whole world to see.