My sister Vaso got a great job this week and I was so proud of her I went on social networking site Twitter and tweeted about her accomplishment.

When we talked on the phone Wednesday night, I told her I put a message about her on Twitter and she said, “Oh. I keep hearing about that. What the heck is it?”

I probably could talk about Twitter and what it is for hours, and there are endless descriptions of it on the Net, but basically it’s a place where people share quick tidbits 24 hours a day. By tidbits I mean short sentences, or just a few words, or numbers. What ever the heck people want to share. The only restriction is that you keep your written thoughts to 140 characters.

Here’s a good bare bones description of it from Internet expert Mark Frauenfelder:

Simply put, Twitter is way for you to let other people know what you are doing. After you register at Twitter, you’ll be presented with this question: “What are you doing?” Below the question is a blank rectangle for you to give your answer. You must answer using 140 characters or less (about two sentences). This answer is called a “tweet” and you can tweet as often as you want (for free). Anyone who has your Twitter address can read your tweets.

Who cares? Another excellent question. The answer: people who care about you — your friends, your family, even people you’ve never met but only know online. You can let people know you’re tweeting on Twitter by letting them know you have a Twitter address: (mine is http://twitter.com/frauenfelder). Some people put their Twitter address at the bottom of their email messages to let people know. Other post it on their blog or Web page.

I use Twitter to let my friends know about funny photos and stories I’ve found online, or if I’m going to an event in town that other people might want to attend. If you sign up for Twitter and stick with it, I’m sure you’ll come up with you own uses.

Pretty simple, no?

Lately I’ve been asking people to follow me on Twitter at www.twitter.com/careerdiva, and many of you have taken me up on it even if you don’t know what the heck it is. But you guys get on there, follow me, and then don’t participate in Twitter world.

Here are some suggestions. Sign up for Twitter and start tweeting. Don’t go crazy by tweeting every time you go to the bathroom or inane stuff like that, but share interesting things you read on the Internet, or lessons you may have learned that day.

Then start reading tweets by people under the “Everyone” section. When you come across an interesting tweet, click on the highlighted name of the person tweeting and follow them. Keep doing this until you have a critical mass of people you find interesting, maybe 30 or so. It’s a good idea to already have interesting tweets you’ve done so when you follow someone and they check you out to see who you are they’ll see more than just a tweet saying “hello. I really don’t know what Twitter is but my sister told me to sign up.”

Once you’ve gotten the hang of Twitter, I would read this blog post by Twitter master Guy Kawasaki. This is a great primer for upping your Twitter followers.

So, you may now be asking “why the heck should I be on Twitter at all?”

Well, no one has to be on Twitter. If the job you do has very little to do with the Internet, or you’re just to busy to add another task, then maybe Twitter isn’t for you. But if you are in a host of jobs, marketing, writing, art, music, etc., where you want to get the word out about yourself, Twitter is a free, easy way to do it. Or maybe you just want more people reading your blog.

How will it help? If you can get a good amount of followers following your tweets, then you create your own audience. All you have to do is tweet about something and your followers, at least some of them, will read the tweet and maybe follow a link you included in the tweet.

I tweet often about what I’m writing about in this blog and on my MSNBC.com column, and I do it all in verse. Seriously, that’s my thing. I wanted to distinguish myself from the rest of the Twitter pack. Some people love it. Others are probably annoyed by it. But my use of Twitter has definitely led to more hits on this blog.

Here’s a recent rhyming fun tweet:

nothing better than rummaging thru a bag of pistachios and finding one that’s shell-less/i’m a salt-a-holic, i must confess

And here’s a please-read-my-blog tweet:

adorable little children turn into savage beasts/how can we expect labor leaders to smoke the pipe of peace. yur thoughts? www.CareerDiva.net

Another good example of using Twitter to create buzz is cartoon artist Hugh MacLeod. He tweets when he has a new cartoon on his blog and wants to share it. I often check them out. They are damn good. Here’s a recent sample:

This guy has over 11,000 Twitter followers. Hello, this is great marketing for MacLeod, no?

Anyway, you see what I’m talking about.

Now, all you have to do is not be afraid to go into the Twitter water. Sign up and make like a twittering Ester Williams.

My sister did indeed sign up. But when I went to her Twitter page it said: “This person has protected their updates.”

She inadvertently locked her page from people trying to follow her. OK, so she hasn’t quite figured this Twitter thing out. But at least she’s trying.