His song may say the first step is the two-step, but Tracy Byrd has gone from the jitterbug to the twitter-bug in recent months.

Although the country singer humbly admits he sings better than he tweets, the 42-year-old Texan has fallen in love with the social-networking phenomenon of Twitter.

"I love it," said Byrd just before taking the stage at the Antelope County Fair on Friday night. "Twitter is really neat. It's instant gratification."

Twitter has allowed millions of people to get to know their favorite celebrities in a more personal manner as they share their day and thoughts with an occasional message called a tweet.

Some celebrities, who often have the most followers, tweet dozens of times daily. Ashton Kutcher is easily king of Twitter with more than 1 million followers.

While Byrd's numbers are quite a bit smaller, thousands use Twitter to keep in tune with the man behind hits "Watermelon Crawl" and "Keeper of the Stars."

"From a business perspective, it's great," he said. "If there's a new single coming out, new album or even a new T-shirt, all you have to do is tweet about it. Boom, thousands of people know about it."

But the best aspect of Twitter, Byrd said, is simply the interaction. Never before has Byrd been able to stay so in touch with fans across the country on such a personal basis. On Wednesday while in Colorado he tweeted, "If God Doesn't Live in Colorado, I bet that's where he spends most of his time."

As expected, most of the immediate comments back were in agreement of Colorado's serenity, but one follower recognized the "Colorado" lyric from Merle Haggard's 1976 album "The Roots of My Rising."

To that, Byrd personally texted the follower back, something he'd never been able to do without Twitter.

Byrd said there is a fine line between the positive and negative aspects of Twitter since many - users and followers - allow it to consume their life. Some artists tweet everything that pops into their minds, whether it's proper or not, but Byrd said he still filters his account, especially since his son and daughter follow him.

Twitter has broken down a privacy barrier for some celebrities or should we say celebrities have opened the gate by using Twitter. Byrd said followers get to know the real Tracy Byrd, but they don't know all of his views or thoughts.

"I have to wonder, though, should everyone really know exactly what I think?" Byrd asked. "Some things are better left as a thought and not said. There are some things that need to be personal and private."

Byrd tweeted twice while in Neligh. The first invited followers in the area to go to the merchandise table and pick up meet and greet passes to go backstage to see Byrd. The second tweet told fans although it rained hard, the sun was shining and the show would be great.

From the time Byrd tweeted and the end of the show, he'd already gained several more followers.

"This is fun for the fans, and it's fun for me," Byrd said. "It's interesting to see what people think about things."