A Twitter primer for administrators

Christopher Dawson writes for ZDNet Education: "How often have you heard, 'So what the heck is this #Twitter thing, anyway?' or 'Why the heck would anyone want to use Twitter?' To be honest, they're not bad questions. Those of us who are Twitter geeks have to remember that the rest of the world may not be Tweeting with us. In particular, teachers and administrators in our schools are often far removed from social media and struggle to see it as anything more than a time drain or a legal liability. For those people, I’m creating this Twitter primer. Lots of people have done a 'how to Twitter' and I don't need to redo it here. This is directed at the administrator or teacher in your school, district, university, etc., who is curious about Twitter, but either doesn't see the value or doesn't see how it can fit into a school setting. Here goes - feel free to add relevant points in the talkbacks if you've had luck in your own setting with social media tools (or if you are still unconvinced)...