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Social networking isn't just for your kids.

Businesses have discovered the power of twitter. It's networking at the speed of light.

Twitter lets you meet hundreds of people in no time online. A "Tweet-up" is where you meet the people you've networked with in person.

It's like a reunion of people you've never seen in person. More than a hundred Milwaukee business leaders gathered at the Iron Horse Hotel for a Tweetup.Then meet them in person-- at a local "tweet-up."

Michelle D'Attilio and Jeanette Pham, co-owners of "Corporate Identity Solutions," organized the Tweet-up to spread the word about how Twitter has helped them build their business, and to help other business owners get online and start networking.

"It's a little bit like free advertising and it's social networking at its best where you can get online and meet a lot of people in a short period of time and talk about what you're doing and find out what they're doing," D'Attilio said.

"I knew that we wanted to take it to the next logical step, for us was take the relationships that were being forged online at Twitter and take it into the real world. Where we're hoping that real business gets done as a result," Pham added.

So how does Twitter work? Create a free account. Then, search for contacts and "follow" them online. In return.. you want people "following" you by reading your posts, visiting your website, and, hopefully, bringing you business.

It worked for D'Attilio and Pham.

"In our case we saw increases in business to our website because our name was out there, increased hits to our blog, people requesting meetings with us that we didn't know," Pham told us.

That's what Paul Grant is hoping for. He runs a local franchise of "The Maids" -- and is looking to build his business.

"I really want to learn the slant, I was hoping it was more business oriented, I was concerned it might just be social but I'm hearing from a lot of people who are using it for business purposes so that's why I want to keep learning tonight," he told us.

To help, "Twitter Tutors" set up laptops to teach newbies how to make twitter useful. They advised how to network with the right contacts, and what to post to bring attention to your business.

Still confused? There are Twitter videos online to help get you started. If you're not ready to take the plunge-- "Linked In" is another social networking tool being used by professionals.

Of course today's tmj4 is tweeting... And we're easy to find. Just go to twitter.com/todaystmj4 or CLICK HERE

The Storm Team Forecasters are also Tweeting. CLICK HERE to check out their feed.