LILY Allen has been giving away tickets to lucky American fans which are cunning enough to solve the clues given out by Allen on her Twitter account.

For those that don’t know, Twitter is a blogging website, comprised of tweets, a tweet being a blog entry of up to 140 characters written by its many users. All posts attempt to answer the question posed by twitter.com; “What are you doing now?”

While many people use it to let their friends know what they’re having for lunch, celebrities ranging from MC Hammer to Kevin Rudd have found Twitter to be a very useful and effective way of communicating directly with their fans.

Allen (follow her on twitter at @lilyroseallen), the UK songbird, has started inviting her fans to participate in a scavenger hunt as she travels America performing, the winning prize being two good seats to her next concert.

The day of the concert Lily will go to a public location in the city and tweet her clues, for example:

“Run rabbit run, and you’ll get there soon, under the bell, in the park with the spoon.”

Or…

“In millennium square under a chair, near to the bean the tickets are there.”

Allen then waits until somebody comes and finds her, and rewards them with the tickets for their efforts.

She’s not the only celebrity that uses Twitter, either. Every day more persons of note are signing up to the microblogging site to keep the public updated with their day to day activities. Some use it to tell their fans about what’s going on in their professional life;

“Apparently SNL has just bestowed upon me the highest honor imaginable - my name has become a metaphor for masturbation. So proud.” (Follow Weird Al Yankovic at @alyankovic)

While some use it to philosophise about the nature of society:

“How come we dont have Bank Holidays like in europe? all of our holidays here are based on death, war, or religion. hmmm.” (Follow Xhibit at @mrxtothaz)

Or just to spread good will:

“Happy Easter Twitter Friends!”(Follow Wille Nelson at @willienelson)

The majority of twitter users, however, still use it to tell their friends what they’re having for lunch, how late their bus was, and any random thoughts they feel are important for their friends to know, but not important enough for them to know through Facebook. Regardless, it’s still an interesting, if not fleeting way of keeping in touch with friends, and people you hope to be friends with on the go.

Lily Allen kicks off the Australian leg of her tour with a sold out Brisbane concert on the 8^th of June, and will then go on to perform in Sydney and Melbourne.

- Michael Vilkins