Twitter? Is it that powerful?

I'm well aware people have been highly recommending social media as a very powerful marketing/communications tool for quite some time now.  So I admit I hesitated, but on Saturday I followed through with the set up of facebook, blogger and twitter accounts for HESTER Inc.  Don't get me wrong, I believe in human interaction on a daily basis. My fiance' would agree I go a bit spare if I haven't talked to anyone all day.  However, this social media interface looked a bit simple, but also complicated at the same time. How do I make friends with people on twitter? Why do people start following my tweets which feel like they're going into thin air? I'm no Paris Hilton, LondonLibertyGirl or FashionNinaG - who i think are all fantastic.  I felt because I didn't jump on the twitter bandwagon from the very beginning, I would be at a complete loss as to what was going on around me. Almost like those times when you arrive too late to a conversation at a party... sometimes fashionably late isn't all that great.  So, I googled, how to attract more followers on twitter - I know a lot of people wonder this and I believe it's probably stopped them in the past, like me.  This link was really good: http://www.ehow.com/how_5042136_people-follow-twitter.html
As Twitter looks, it's a really simple concept and  i liked point number 5 the best, if someone clicks to follow you and trust me, you're recommended people all the time to follow, then you just send them a quick direct message to say thank you. Very polite and courteous. At the moment, I'm very taken with this courteous twittersphere. I have 17 people following me now on Twitter. That's taken less than a week. I'm impressed!  Some people might be able to gain a lot more momentum but I'll shout myself a champagne cocktail over this.  Yesterday I downloaded a twitter app on my iphone so i'm able to tweet on the move. It's just a bit addictive. LondonLibertyGirl has definitely been one of my favourites, her london restaurant tips are fab and i am going to take her up on her Polpo in Soho recommendation soon!