One of the great challenges of Twitter is how to use it effectively once you start following upwards of 100 people. I’ll explain my personal methodology and while it may not work for you, you might be able to pick and choose to make dealing with your Twitter stream easier.

Before I get started, there is one thing that you must remember once you start following a significant number of people: you will miss tweets. With that in mind, here’s how I use Twitter.

1. Make use of notifications

Twitter began for me as a way to keep in touch with my friends scattered in different locations. To this day, I still have a limited set of people for who I want to see all of their Tweets. I turn on notifications for these people to ensure that I don’t miss communication from them.

2. Utilize Twitter via Instant Messenger (Settings -> Phone & IM) to receive notifications - I’ve found twitter@twitter.com (Jabber) to be more reliable.

This goes hand-in-hand with the previous recommendation. Twitter via IM can help centralize replies and direct messages in one location allowing you to address them there. If you also set up your mobile phone, Twitter will send notifications there when your IM is offline. However, too many tweets via SMS can be over-stimulating and I tend to use SMS messages for important or personal messages. Fortunately, most of the people I have notifications turned on for are not heavy Tweeters and I can use SMS notifications when I’m away from my computer to keep in touch. If it gets to be too much, I just send an “off” to Twitter and turn it back on later.

3. Download a client application

There are many third-party client applications out there, each with their own set of features. Just shoot out a tweet and see which one your friends like. The applications can help with the Twitter stream, as most of them display tweets as they are made. I usually have mine running throughout the day and I’ll glance at tweets as they pop up and reply accordingly if anything catches my eye. Most applications also highlight direct message or replies, making it easier to identify conversations that pertain directly to you.

In this way, it doesn’t affect my normal workflow but I can keep up with the Twittersphere fairly easily and tweets that pertain to me are highlighted. The web application remains the most popular way people tweet, but it doesn’t provide a good way to keep an eye on a large volume of activity.

Rumor also has it that one or more of the applications might be implementing something akin to groups in the near future, a much-desired feature on Twitter.

That’s it for now - go forth and follow!