Can I simultaneously do a database update and send a tweet with one form button on my site?

[LCGuidelets]

My site is http://www.littlecitiesguide.com. I have a feature on my site that allows a user to post a “Guidelet” - a 140-character “blurb” about a LittleCity or a business, depending on which page you’re on. (If you’re on the page where it lists multiple businesses for a LittleCity, your Guidelet will apply to the LittleCity; if you’re on a specific business’ page, then the Guidelet will apply to that business only.) The form saves the Guidelet text in a database, and then shows the last 10 for either the LittleCity or the specific business. That works like a champ.

I would like to allow the user to check a checkbox - “Tweet This” - and, in addition to saving the Guidelet in the database, send a tweet via my @LCGuidelet Twitter account, complete with hashtags “#LCGuide” and “#CityST” built in, so followers to a particular LittleCity can receive the latest Guidelets as they’re posted.

You can play around with the site. Search for “Kentucky”, “Florence”, and “Business/Personal Services”, and use the “Danformation” Business. The “Tweet This” checkbox does not at present work, but it’s exactly the functionality I’d like.

Please let me know if what I propose is possible, and how I go about doing it. I’m not a newbie programmer, but am very new to Twitter, especially the API if that’s what I need to use.

Thanks!

[LCGuidelets]

Just to clarify:

If I click the form button to add the guidelet to the database, I also - if the “Tweet This” checkbox is checked - want to automatically send a Tweet using my @LCGuidelets Twitter account.

I use PHP in my site, and so far, I can only find a thoroughly bewildering array of special case uses, like Python, Ruby, iOS, etc., and then I also get some deprecated crap like “@Anywhere” Tweet Boxes that do not work at all. Are there any simple, straightforward tutorials out there to guide me through sending a simple tweet using the CURRENT API? Also, I JUST want to send a simple tweet, not get lists of tweets, look up any hashtags, or anything except send a tweet.

Thanks for any help you can give me.

[niall]

[andypiper]