Twitter turns four today. Co-founder Jack Dorsey made the first tweet on March 21, 2006, at 8.50pm (PST).

Note the status number at the end of the URL of that tweet – twenty. Status numbers tell us the actual number of the post on the system. Wonder what happened to tweets one through nineteen? Maybe the content was so racy and damaging that they were quickly pulled before Twitter went live?

(Or, perhaps more likely, they were used for testing purposes.)

Happy birthday Twitter!

Twittercism is a now little over a year old. In that brief period of time this blog has expanded from fairly humble beginnings to a fully-fledged Twitter resource, providing commentary, tips, tutorials and guides, as well as a little bit of occasional criticism, too.

Over 7,000 people now read Twittercism on a daily basis, accessing the content via RSS feed, email, Facebook and Twitter itself.

I’m on a big expansion drive at the moment, and I’d absolutely love if it you could help me out. Everything on Twittercism is completely free, and if you feel you’ve received some value from the articles and information I’ve written and published on this site, it would be incredible if you could help me grow the readership of this blog by recommending it to your friends.

It’s very easy to do. Here’s how you can help, and I’m also going to lay out for you the various ways you can subscribe to Twittercism.

Note: All of these subscription methods are 100% free of charge, and you can opt out at any time.

Email

Almost three hundred people receive their updates from Twittercism via email. This goes out no more than once per day, and only when there’s something to say. No update, no email!

I’m really hoping to expand my email readership as in the weeks ahead I’m going to start sending out Twittercism newsletters, and these will only be available to email subscribers. The newsletters won’t be published on this blog or shared via Facebook or Twitter. Just email!

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A minor, but important change that’s been slowly creeping its way into Twitter.com this week. And now that I’ve got it, I assume everybody has – Twitter has replaced the ‘update’ button on the website (below the text box) with the insular, but significantly more definitive, ‘tweet’.

Twitter has been furiously trying to trademark both tweet and retweet in recent months, with little success. In November, the company adjusted the call-to-action text on the homepage, changing it from ‘What are you doing?’ to the more philosophical ‘What’s happening?’

It’s all about the little things.

Still, it’s fairly evident that the platform has been moving away from being a simple status update service, both in terms of how it is seen and wants to be seen, and this change likely reflects that forward-thinking.

In a recent piece I wrote about how it’s a common misconception for some to think that Twitter is a ‘waste of time’.

There are others still who actually have an interest, and want to get involved, but fear getting caught up in something that’s going to be all-consuming, again leading to major time suckage. Your time is important, and anything that has a negative impact on that will be dismissed pretty quickly.

Or perhaps you think that unless you fully commit, you’re always going to feel (and worse, look) like an outsider, as if Twitter is a club to which you’ll never really belong.

The reality is, you can get everything you need out of Twitter in just 30 minutes a day. With practice, even less. Used wisely and with good habits, even this relatively brief period of time can be immensely rewarding and informative, to businesses and individuals alike.

The best part? Everything listed here can be easily managed at Twitter.com and Twitter search. The only thing you need is access to your favourite web browser, which means that software restrictions in the workplace (or on your mobile handset) aren’t going to hold you back.

Here’s how to do it:

1. Spread It Out And Break It Down

Let’s say you can only spare 30 minutes a day for Twitter. The network is a fluid, almost living organism that flows, trends and re-forms multiple times a day. Hence, using those 30 minutes all at once at a random point over a 24-hour period – which will usually be a hurried, last-minute thing when you get a moment to squeeze it in – isn’t the best use of your time.

Approaching Twitter in this way usually means missing out on lots of news, signal and opportunities. Which means you’ll get frustrated, and can leave you feeling like a bit of an outsider.

If your time is limited, it’s far better to slice what you have up into periods.

2. Try To See As Much Of The Twitter Day As You Possibly Can

It’s important to remember that Twitter functions over several time-zones and continents.

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This one is a real bugaboo of mine.

Some questions that may sound familar:

1. How can you spend so much time on Twitter?
2. Where do you find all those links?
3. Don’t you have anything better to do?

There’s really no need to justify passion, but here’s your answer: because it interests me. Because it interests the people I care about. Because I see the value. And when something is interesting and valuable, then it’s fairly easy to make that extra effort to accommodate it into your life.

If you don’t see the value, or simply are not willing to, then it’s never going to be important. You’re always going to see that effort as ‘wasted’.

Either find the time, or do not. But please don’t criticise other people because they’re prepared and able to do the work and research that you’ve shown you’re incapable of doing yourself.