There are tools I use that just make my work life easier and today I’ve decided to share two of my favorites. Twitter and Skype.

Technology is moving so fast today it’s hard to know what you should be paying attention to or not. It’s true, Twitter may be a flash in the pan, and Skype may start charging for its basic service, but for now you’re not being smart if you just disregard these free tools that may make your life easier and maybe even enhance your career.

Here goes:

TWITTER

OK, you’ve all heard about this but many of you are wondering what the heck it really is and why you should even care. Even some of you I’ve encouraged to get on Twitter don’t even know what it is or what all the fuss is about.

What: It’s like a mini blog that is perpetually updated; but not updated by just one blogger. The millions of people on Twitter update this public blog with small notes of 140 characters or less called “tweets”. And all bets are off when it comes to what the tiny messages can be about, everything from events in Gaza to chicken livers. The messages scroll down your screen every time you refresh the page, and you can also see if anyone has responded to your tweet by clicking on your user name.

Why: Twitter is basically about exposure folks, plain and simple. If you want to create a following or get people all around the world to offer advice or connect you with their networks, Twitter is for you. I use it to provide tips to workers on everything from COBRA insurance to their rights when furloughed; to get readers to read my blog and my MSNBC.com column; to network with other career and business experts; and to help readers who are looking for work or contacts in a certain city. I also enjoy funny and witty tweets from a host of Twitterati, and I sometimes share my own personal stories. Once my niece was arguing with her mom about getting a lip ring and I put a tweet out for advice and we were inundated with tons of good suggestions. Twitter is a great place to sell your wares as well. I’ve found a ton of jewelry designers on Twitter because they tweeted something interesting about their designs.

How: To sign up you go to www.twitter.com and click on “sign up now”. The rest is pretty self explanatory. The user name is key when you decide to get on Twitter. Pick something simple and easy to remember. Use your name if that’s short and sweet. I chose CareerDiva and it’s working for me.

A couple of Twitter no nos, and take this with a grain of salt because in reality there are no Twitter no nos. We’re all pretty much making this stuff up on the fly. The big no no for me is signing up for Twitter and never tweeting. I get people following me all the time, then I look at there Twitter page and I realize they don’t have even one tweet to their name. I typically decide not to follow someone like that.

And what’s “follow” mean anyway? Well, the way Twitter works is you follow people you know, or just think they have great tweets. If you follow them, often times they’ll follow you. It’s all about followers on Twitter. I have over 4,000 right now and I follow more than 3,000 people. This may be a lot for many of you to track, and when you get into the big numbers like that you will definitely miss out on tweets because you’d have to be monitoring the site 24/7 to get it all. Once a tweet comes up and you miss it, you won’t typically see it again, unless you go searching for it, or have a certain person as your favorite.

On Fridays lots of people on Twitter suggest other people on Twitter to follow, so it’s a good time to check out people you may never have come across.

I know you all probably will have tons of questions once you try Twitter out so feel free to ask me on Twitter. www.Twitter.com/careerdiva. Don’t be afraid to try things out. I was a Twitter dummy — and probably still am — for the first few months.

SKYPE

This is one of the free services that you should be ashamed of yourself for not using.

What: Skype is a service that allows you to make voice and video calls over the Internet for free. That’s basically what it is. eBay bought the company but this week announced it sold off a big chunk of the company to private investors, a move that will potentially make the service even better, experts say.

Why: I have two reasons for using Skype.
1. To connect with my husband and kids when I travel. I was in Athens, Greece, last week and all I needed was a connection to the Internet to do video-chatting with my family back home in the good old USA. It didn’t cost me a dime, and it was like I was there in the room watching my kids dance around our home office.
2. To connect with far-flung friends and sources. It’s great to send email and talk on the phone but watching someone is totally another matter. You really feel like you spent some time with people, and you can also put a name with a face. (Also, lately people asking to interview me are looking to do video podcasts and one recently asked me if I was on Skype because he used the free service to interview sources.)

How: Go to the site and download the software. Again, pick an easy to remember user name. I’m, what else, CareerDiva. To make this worth your while you’re going to have to get other people to sign up for Skype, although, you may be surprised how many people you know are on there. Many people are including their Skype user names in their signature lines these days in addition to their cell phone numbers and email addresses.

I typically take my laptop on business trips so I’m able to spark up Skype in a hotel room and leave it running most of the time I’m there so I can feel like I’m just in the other room listening to my kids, or my husband typing on his computer or fixing dinner.

A friend of mine wrote me yesterday that he wasn’t on Twitter because he was just “traditional.” Well, he didn’t write me this thought in a letter on stationary that came through the mail folks. He was instant messaging me this proclamation.

So, in his world IM is traditional but Twitter is some scary unknown.

“What a world, what a world.”

Remember that quote from the Wicked Witch in the Wizard of Oz when Dorothy throws water on her and she starts to melt:

You cursed brat! Look what you’ve done! I’m melting! melting! Oh, what a world! What a world! Who would have thought a good little girl like you could destroy my beautiful wickedness? Oooooh, look out! I’m going! Oooooh! Ooooooh!

IM, Twitter, Skype. They’re all like technological water and I’m here to throw it on you. I promise, you won’t melt.