Last night, I was appalled to have to share my Twitter with Rachel Pradhan, President of Blaze Interactive & Indra Successful Coach Marketing. (RACHEL! Did you not read my last blog entry????? Twitter and I are involved!)

You see, Rachel so graciously agreed to be a guest lecturer for a Six Figure Moms Club event in San Diego. Rachel and I spoke to a room of folks fairly new to social media about the almost endless benefits and ways to make money on the internet.

I spoke before Rachel arrived and started with a live Twitter feed up on the screen. The group was very inquisitive about Twitter and wanted a casual overview of how it works. We talked about the following:

• The feeling of confusion many people experience when they first sign up for Twitter. We discussed how many of them (me too) had signed up, sat there looking at the sceen saying, “Okay, I don’t get it. Now what do I do? How do I figure out who to follow?” or ” These people that have asked to follow me seem like stalkers. How do I block them? How do I make sure to protect my privacy and make sure I’m safe?”
• @PHDBRE was Tweeting away and had four posts in a row on the twitter feed. Everyone wanted to know why so many? Was she just really talkative? An overpromoter? What was she doing? I read her tweets aloud and explained that she was in the midst of conducting an online survey. Also, that @PHDBRE and I had communicated through DM’s earlier in the day about bloggers and my guess at their potential MBTI type of NT. This lead to a discussion of What is a DM? and Next, “Wow, Angie, Do you know her?” “Well, No, not face-to-face, but I hope to soon, and we did have a business related conversation (140 characters of course) earlier today”. They were amazed, glossy eyed and somewhat enthralled.
• Next we discussed how @AshleyMahaffey who was in the room, came because she found out about the event through connecting with me on Twitter. Next, we discussed a potential Tweetup between Ashley, me, @AnnVertel and @MariSmith sometime in the next few weeks…all as a result of Ashlee following me on Twitter.
• The group asked how do you learn Twitter lingo. @AshleyMahaffey offered a great resouce I can’t remember (so I’m hoping she’ll post it in the comments here) and I refered again to @MariSmith ’s Twitter LIngo Demystified.
• We also discussed that although several folks were interested in starting a blog, there were only a few folks in the room (in addition to the folks mentioned above) that had blogs like www.sandiegobargainmama.com, and www.healthwisewomen.com. This took us to a discussion of the untapped market of opportunity awaiting these six figure moms if they chose to embrace it.

Ok, back to Rachel, the main speaker. She presented, “Creating a FAPulous Website” and talked about how websites must have a clear Focus, contain a call to Action and be Personal. She then discussed the elements of a great website and maximizing the user experience. I twitted as she presented in hopes that any Tweeps not able to attend could get a taste of what she was talking about. (You can see what I tweeted by going here). Rachel also discussed how easy it is today to develop alliances with people using social media. Specifically, she discussed how she and her husband felt lucky to be corresponding with Guy Kawasaki, famous author/blogger.

We started a discussion in tandem both in the room and on Twitter about preferred Contact Management Systems/Autoresponders (aWeber vs. IContact) that continues today online. Meanwhile, Rachel’s husband, @webocsupport was twitting me, “Is the presentation over and what have you done with my wife?” from her home over an hour away. The night was a great success.

Today, just before writing this post, I finished my work day ordering some printed goods from a vendor I learned about at the event last night. When I called, she said, I know you, I follow you on Twitter and I offer discounts to all my Twitter friends. Check out @vpg_printing. She’s even offering some fabulous bonus to whomever is lucky enough to become her 1000th follower which she expects to happen by November 1. Perhaps that could be you?

One last note. If you are still wondering what you can do with Twitter, check out this great blogpost written by Dahna M. Chandler about Warren Whitlock, who she deems “Dr. Twitter” ” Why Do I Need Twitter and How Do I Use It? A Twitter expert tells you”.

Maybe, I’ll deem myself, “Mrs. Twitter” and see if that sticks….but alas, I think I might be getting ahead of myself a bit in our relationship…

So, again, can you see just a little why I can’t help but continue my affair with Twitter? I’m smitten.