Wyclef Jean talks about Twitter at the #140conf in NYC from Thomas Attila Lewis on Vimeo.

Above is the video I shot at the 140 Characters Conference (#140conf) in New York City yesterday. Recording artist Wyclef Jean has only been using Twitter for about 3 months but has received tremendous value from it – not just because of the PR he can immediately generate but also because he is using feedback from his followers to help write songs as well as launch his non-profit, Yele Haiti.

He is also using Twitter to make a spiritual connection (see the “Sunday Twittering” segment) as well as provide comedy relief (see the very off-color “Hector Story” segment). While it’s absolutely true that Wyclef Jean already has a huge following in the non-Twitter world, thus making it fairly easy to develop a large list of followers on Twitter, he’s using the tool in ways that are beyond self-promotion and that’s the most important thing to remember about Twitter: it’s not really a separate world, news source, or social environment that you have to adapt your life around – Twitter is a tool for you to leverage for your own life, your own business. Don’t be intimidated by it, commit only what you want to, but get involved.