If you’ve been watching or reading any news lately, you may be aware that Twittermania is sweeping the nation. Twitter, the micro-blogging/social networking site that asks you to share the answer to the simple question “What are you doing?” in 140 characters or less with followers (friends) has seen a swarm of media coverage in the last few weeks.

Major news organizations have found many different ways to cover the rising popularity of Twitter. With headlines like “Twitter Gets a Seat in Federal Court,” “Is Twitter Search Feature a Threat to Google” and “Facebook Makeover Mimics Twitter”, Twitter is definitely the cool kid on the tech block these days.

I created my Twitter account in April of 2007 out of curiousity about the site, but didn’t really start using it with regularity until the last few months. I’ve been fascinated by the various uses of the site — keeping up with friends, sharing stories, receiving breaking news updates and even tracking the musings of your favorite celebrities (@lancearmstrong and @jimmyfallon are a couple of my favorites). I understand the news of President Bush’s recent surprise visit to an SMU political science class was broken by the student newspaper via a “tweet” (what the short updates are called) from a student in the class.

I’ve used Twitter in a number of different ways. I live “tweeted” the President Bush’s final press conference on January 12 and I’ve been sharing thoughts and pictures from the road as I travel to Seattle on the XCD09 (Cross Country Drive 2009). It has also been a handy way to follow the training, tips and advice of other triathletes. I use the Twitterrific application on the iPhone, so I can update from anywhere and keep track of all of the tweets from people I’m following on the site. As you’ll see off to the right, I have a widget that shows my latest tweets. You can see all of my tweets at http://twitter.com/scottstanzel and if you are already using Twitter, you can reach me at @scottstanzel.

How are you using Twitter?

UPDATE: On my Facebook page, good friend Kelly Johnston mentioned Senator Chuck Grassley’s (@chuckgrassley) use of Twitter. I thought it was worth noting here all of the attention Senator Grassley has received for being a regular Twitterer. Last Saturday night, Nancy Cordes of CBS News did a piece about member of Congress using Twitter. Her story featured Senator Grassley prominently. You can see the video and read the transcript here. Also, Patrick Gavin (@pwgavin) from the Politico ranked Senator Grassley seventh on his list of the most influential DC Twitterers. Long-time Iowa journalist Jane Norman (@janenorman) noted that ranking in her recent column about Senator Grassley’s media presence. Read it here. Senator Grassley has certainly come a long way since 1997, when I worked in his office and taught myselft HTML coding in order to launch his first official website.