I gave up on major news outlets a long time ago. I haven’t had cable in years. I am not a neanderthal.

I don’t need news from traditional sources. I heard that Osama Bin Laden had been killed, about the tragedy at Sandy Hook, and that Ohio University beat Michigan in the NCAA Men’s Basketball tournament in 2012–all from Twitter.

I think most people give up on Twitter or dismiss it all together because they think it’s best used to find out when your friends have to take a leak or to tweet pictures of omelets. I think if you use Twitter as an information gathering tool as I suggest below you’ll find it will quickly become your favorite news and resource tool.

1. Don’t follow your “friends”. They’re the reason you hate Facebook. “Friends” online are not your friends in real life. They are acquaintances you’ve met once who post pictures of kissy faces in the mirror and complain about how school/work/their life sucks. Remember, Twitter isn’t reciprocal like Facebook is. Just because someone follows you doesn’t mean you should follow them. In fact, don’t.

2. Start small. Don’t go crazy and follow 500 people. Start with 50 people that seem to post interesting things. It’s easier to start by following quality users and add more fascinating people than to try and sift through your gigantic list of people you’re following to separate the wheat from the chaff.

3. Follow a limited number of news outlets. They all post the same fear-mongering garbage. I found out about major happenings because people that I follow will retweet (essentially share or repost what someone else said) the major news, so I’ll hear about it from one of the people I follow rather than CNN or ABC.

4. Follow who your favorite tweeters retweet. This is how I find most of my new people to follow. You’ll notice that favorite tweeters retweet people who are sharp, funny, or helpful. If someone you respect retweets another person, chances are good that you should follow them too.

5. Follow your favorite blogs and bloggers. They’ll post helpful links in the realm you’re interested in. I follow Desiring God, LifeHacker, Get Rich Slowly, and a handful of others.

6. Follow your favorite pastors, authors, and speakers. This is what makes Twitter most valuable to me. I get golden nuggets of wisdom from people I respect most and solid links to valuable materials. Some of my favorites: John Piper, Burk Parsons, Jared Wilson, Mark Driscoll, Dave Ramsey, and Michael Hyatt.

7. Refine, refine, refine (or unfollow, unfollow, unfollow). If you don’t like what people tweet, unfollow them. If you don’t like what they retweet, disable retweets by going to their profile and clicking “disable retweets.” If you are hesitant to unfollow close friends whose tweets you just don’t love, I suggest buying Tweetbot and using the mute filter to hide their posts from your Twitter feed but still follow them for the sake of your friendship.

8. Use favorites to save inspiring quotes, articles, and links. If you take a look at my favorite tweets, you’ll see they are almost all helpful resources, or encouraging quotes that I turn to when I’m in need of some inspiration. You could also use favorites as reminders of things you want to check up on but don’t have time to at that moment as well.

To take a look at who I follow, click here and go crazy with the follow button.

Question: What are your favorite tips for getting the most out of Twitter? What has kept you from diving into Twitter?