Is it me or are we hearing a lot about twitter these days? Talk shows like Jimmy Fallon and Jay Leno had guests who talked about twitter. Individuals (athletes, analysts and company executives) are building their brand using Twitter as have companies like Comcast, JetBlue, and Dell. How is Twitter different from websites and blogs? I think it has to do with timeliness of information. Websites address the needs of customers looking for information about a company that is probably valid for months (if not longer). These sites are well thought out and represent the consensus opinion within a company about how it competes and its products and services. A blog, on the other hand, is a viewpoint expressed by an individual on a phenomenon of interest. A micro blog or tweet is a burst of thought that occurs to a person at a given moment. This could lead to a point of view or even a strategy to compete.
When the value of information reduces dramatically as it ages, twitter does its best work. See how Comcast and JetBlue use this to respond to customer complaints or individuals can use this to find out what interesting news is breaking out right now. I find myself using applications like twitscoop, twittertrends and tweetdeck to keep on top of what is happening. These tools help you to filter information that is hitting the wire and just listen to the conversations that are of interest to me. With the deluge of information that tools like twitter bring, it is very important for organizations to filter and make sense of the environment.