Twitter, a free social messaging utility, has certainly become a new medium for celebrities to connect with their fans and audience. Even the 44th President of the United States, Barack Obama, has a Twitter account. In my opinion, what makes Twitter different from Facebook and MySpace, is that updates from the celebrities are given in real time and you have the option to reply or comment to their updates (not that they will hopefully reply back to you, but some of them will).

Below is a list of prominent celebrities who tweet (get to know your Twitter terms here). The list is arranged by descending number of followers.

While we cannot truly verify which of the accounts above are real, some of these celebrities have their own unique way of proving that they are indeed who they are. Sometime last week, Sean and Jesse Bearden were able to personally meet Shaquille O’Neal at a diner. Ashton Kutcher posts stuff he takes with his camera over at Qik.com. Demi Moore also posts some pictures from time to time. Brea Grant, who has her own blog, has been interviewed by social media enthusiast Chris Brogan, she was asked about her thoughts on Twitter.

If you do find this article interesting, kindly retweet it to your followers by clicking here. You can also follow me on Twitter.

More information elsewhere:

• Awww… Twitter helps you make friends with Shaq (CrunchGear)
• Finally, A Use for Twitter (A Foot and A Half)
• 25+ Celebrity Twitter Users (Mashable)
• The Real Shaq is on Twitter and He’s a Must-Follow (Mashable)
• CelebrityTweet: Twitter Without All You Non-Famous People (Mashable)
• Should Twitter Verify Celebrity Accounts? (Mashable)
• Top Twitter Celebrities (Forbes)
• The 50 most popular celebs on Twitter (Times Online UK)