Twitter will soon have 1 billion users, are you one of them?

Twitter has a lot of friends for a 5 year old. On Saturday, I found myself having one of those conversations I have, maybe twice a week for the past year or two: “What IS Twitter, anyway?” asked my mother, even though I’ve shown her a number of times.

The next question, from someone else at a family gathering, was inevitable: “But why do you want to read about what someone had for breakfast?”

And then my ears fell off.

I use Twitter a lot (you can see how I use it by following me here) – to entertain and inform myself, to keep track of my favourite news sites, websites and blogs and to share links to Mamamia posts. I don’t follow celebrities. I don’t follow many people who tweet about their breakfast – but you can do either or both of those things if you wish.

For me, Twitter is a time saver. Instead of visiting 100 sites, I ‘follow’ them which means when they (like me) post links to their stories, I can skim and choose the ones I want to read. Here is a good time to tell you that if you don’t have Tweetdeck (or another of the Twitter platforms that are like a dashboard and make it far easier to use Twitter) you’re wasting your time.

Download it for free here and then open it on your desktop in the same way you’d open your browser or any other app on your desktop.

Look, basically, Twitter is whatever you want it to be. By following whoever you’re interested in (Kardashians, chefs, news sites, craft people, mummy bloggers, bands…) you can customise your Twitter experience exactly to your liking.

New to Twitter? This site helps summarise what it’s all about.

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Anyway, it’s probably a good time to tell you that Mamamia now has 7 different Twitter accounts that you can follow.

I will still be tweeting from my personal account (here) but because some people like to receive extra content about specific areas of interest, we’ve broken it up. ALL accounts are tweeted by real people, not robots and I’ve listed next to each one who will be tweeting it so feel free to interact with them.

They’ll be tweeting relevant content from Mamamia and elsewhere so it will be different to following me.

This is what we’ll be tweeting from each of the accounts:

MamamiaNews (Rick) – We take the news you need to know from around the world and deliver straight to you. Follow it here.

MamamiaParents (Lana) -Everything you need to read about parenting – the coolest advice, posts and news. Follow it here.

MamamiaStyle (Nicky) – For the latest style, beauty and fashion news from across the globe. Follow it here.

MamamiaFood (Lana) – Everything edible and delicious, the coolest recipes, food stories and clips. Follow it here.

MamamiaVideos (Natalia)-For all the latest must-see videos and keep-up with what’s going viral. Follow it here.

MamamiaBooks (Nicky) – Book junkie? Follow MamamiaBooks for reviews, riveting book posts and hundreds of book recommendations. Follow it here.

MamamiaTech (Natalia)- All the latest technology, the coolest advice, posts and news. Follow it here.

If Twitter’s not you thing, you can follow the Mamamia page on Facebook (here) to stay up to date:

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Are you a Twitter user? Facebook more your thing? How do you use them and which do you prefer?

The MM team, apart from vying for your love and attention, will happily answer any questions you have on Twitter. Or slightly related ones!