It's the fastest way to find out what is going on, in a wide variety of subjects. Reporters often tweet while they're working on a story, and definitely tweet t

It's the fastest way to find out what is going on, in a wide variety of subjects. Reporters often tweet while they're working on a story, and definitely tweet the instant it publishes. That is generally true across any industry or beat. And lots of people tweet when they're pissed about things, so Twitter search is the first place I check to see if a major service is down, and why. A lot of information security folks tweet as they working or to release information. Heck, just following the Google Zero folks on Twitter had given me early hints of major security issues. There are some hilarious folks on Twitter, many who are just random folks. Especially if you like absurdist humor, or dumb jokes (or both), it's amazing. There are people of deep expertise posting and conversing on their subjects. Early on in the DNC hack saga, @pwnallthethings described in great detail the public evidence that it was Russia. Finally there is local stuff like, will any of my favorite food trucks will be near my office today? What are the custom flavors at the gelatto shoppe today? When exactly is likely to start raining in my area? There's a lot more. But to get a lot of value out of Twitter, each person needs to be following the accounts that are best for their interests, or know how to use the search well, or both. Either way, there is a learning curve. The fast way up that learning curve is to experiment--be quick to follow folks who look interesting, but also be quick to unfollow the ones you don't like.