Everyone has heard of Twitter, but even those of us using Twitter are still really just learning about how to maximize this social media platform. I joined Twitter in March, 2007 and I am pretty sure one of the only other persons out there at the time was my friend John Dvorak @therealdvorak. Today, John wrote a great story for CBS Marketwatch, “Social networking: No sale! Commentary: These networks are for schmoozing, not selling.”

Well, maybe, maybe not, John.

A year after I joined Twitter and promptly forgot about it, I started to hear from my friend that she was using the technology to keep up with coworkers and friends as she traveled back and forth between two cities for work. And so I revisited my Twitter page with a renewed interest.

For the past year, it has been kind of wild to see the phenomenon grow and grow. As MySpace buried Friendster, Twitter seems to be overtaking Facebook as the current online rage as more and more people sign up to share their thoughts – in 140 characters or less. Really, this reminds me of The Webby Award guidelines, for the past several years now winners’ acceptance speeches could only be 5 words or less – founder Tiffany Schlain probably deserves credit for this one.

It wasn’t really until recently that I started to fully comprehend the magnitude of the situation. In December, I learned that my brilliant mentor and friend @howardlindzon actually built a business using Twitter – now I was really intrigued. How can people profit from Twitter? In his case, @stocktwits and the stocktwits.com web site was designed for day traders and investors to share information about stocks in real time. Today they have around 77,000 followers.

Now, I realized that a filmmaker could be building an audience that someday might choose to help get the word out about their films. I was still really just scratching the surface though. Honestly, until a few weeks ago, I was just posting my tweets and monitoring Tweet Deck groups, but it hadn’t clicked for me.

Then I decided to blog about the upcoming LA Film Festival, and started to research the movies and filmmakers at the event. This is where it came full circle. Almost immediately, @jason_pollack was on my radar. This director’s film, The Youngest Candidate was getting a lot of buzz, but most of it was from Jason himself, sharing tidbits, developments, and even helping fellow Tweeters understand the platform. The film is a documentary that follows four of the youngest political candidates in the U.S., I believe a few are eighteen years old.

It’s from Jason that I finally understood the concept of hashtags. This is simply chosing a nickname or phrase for your project or conversation – in his case #tyc – for his film’s name. If people start to include a hashtag in their tweet, it allows you to build and monitor a group that is discussing that topic or term.

Jason has built up an audience of approximately 53,495 (and growing) Tweeters so far. He is by far, one of the most sophisticated Twitter user in the film festival group and yet, his tweets are all over the place. But his fans love him for it, and when he asks us to retweet, we do, in full force. Retweeting (RT) or repeating someone else’s tweet, is one of the highest forms of a complement after choosing to follow someone on Twitter. Jason regularly asks his fan base to spread the word, and it’s working. Or is it? Ultimately, Jason is looking for a distributor for his film. If the buzz can go from the fans to reach the executives – will that get him a deal? And will his film sell tickets?

Other films that are playing with Twitter include Paper Heart, a hybrid film – half documentary, half comedy played by Charlene Yi and Michael Cera. I’ve noticed that they seem to take turns tweeting for the film and take ownership and sometimes personalize their tweets “Char” or “NJ” for the director Nick Jasenovec. Char posts a lot of random, funny tweets that illustrate her comic style and help us get to know her a little better, a perfect strategy for a docu-comedy like theirs. There’s even a crazy fan pretending to be Michael Cera on Twitter. I’m sure I’m not alone when I say, can the real Mike start tweeting soon? So far, Paper Heart has about 1,312 followers.

Here’s a few more of the LA Festival films that are tweeting. If I have missed you tweet me @launchflix and we’ll do a follow up. But ask yourself, how did we miss you – are you using hashtags, fans, and other related Twits to stand out? Maybe you should.

We Live in Public is a documentary about the story of the Internet’s revolutionary impact on human interaction as told through the eyes of internet pioneer and visionary Josh Harris. Both the film @WLIP and the filmmaker, Ondi Timoner, @onditimoner have Twitter accounts that keep fans posted about the films travels and awards. Ondi Timoner happens to be the first and only two time Grand Jury Prize winner in Sundance history. (WLIP has 138 followers and Ondi has 2608 followers)

Passenger Side @passengerside is a film about two brothers (Adam Scott, the male nurse from Knocked Up plays a lead) with a tumultuous relationship who go on a road trip in LA looking to score drugs. Their tweets might be funnier if they had the characters – like the brothers – tweeting. (316 Followers)

Dear Lemon Lima follows an awkward Alaskan teen as she discovers her Yup’ik heritage while rallying her fellow students to compete in her school’s Snowstorm Survivor competition. @dearlemonlima is the official account, and it seems like the main character is twittering which could prove to be a great strategy to attract their demographic. (71 Followers)

Harmony and Me is a bracingly intimate portrait of a bright guy and his buddies making their way in an increasingly disaffected world. @Harmonythemovie (102 Followers)

Weather Girl is about a Seattle weather girl who finds herself with no job, no boyfriend and no apartment. @WeatherGirlFilm (8 followers)

The LA Film Festival themselves are tweeting, both the festival @lafilmfest as well as the PR Director, Elise Freimuth, @elis_f. (LAFF has 2276 followers)

So, any guesses who will be my first official interview for the LA Film Festival?