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To Twitter Or Not To Twitter-Is It Sweet To Tweet?

Lastminute.com founder Brent Hoberman described it as "a fascinating zeitgeist tool. It's an excellent way of understanding trends, seeing what people are talking about and what's firing their imaginations. It also feeds into our celebrity culture; the nosiness that makes us human. There is always someone out there having a better time than you and you want a bit of it. "

Brent is not alone; Barack Obama has been at it for ages...

Right now it is the place to be, it's got the PR and the momentum but it does not have the revenue model at present and it's purely venture capital funded.

To the uninitiated, messages are known as tweets and people who read your messages are called followers. Then there is the particular Twitter culture and mode of behaviour: sociability is enhanced by retweeting messages you find illuminating by rebroadcasting them to your followers. Among hardcore users, gratuitous self-promotion is frowned upon.

Twitter has stumbled upon a formula that a whole generation of internet start ups has been searching for: a way for people to connect with friends, express themselves and find information that stands a chance of one day becoming as popular as other mass online trends such as blogging and social networking.

Three years old, the Silicon Valley company only has 29 employees whilst the basic service will remain free, business users as on Linked In may be charged for extra functions. Meanwhile there is a viral network effect which is giving it great growth. The Twitter phenomenon has much to do with the fundamental simplicity of the idea. Operating at a juncture of blogging, texting and social networking, the service defies easy categorisation. "Because it is undergoing such rapid evolution, it's hard to slap a label on it" says Peter Fenton a partner at Benchmark Capital, who has joined Twitter's board.

Businesses have been keen to tap into a rapidly growing network like Twitter. The fact that users can choose which messages they want to receive could open the way to a new "opt-in" marketing says Bob Pearson of Dell. The computer maker for instance , issues a stream of tweets about new discounts on its products.

In summary Twitter's six secrets of online success:

* Immediacy: Real-time flow of comments and adaptability to mobile handsets makes it more immediate than blogging.

* Brevity: Limiting messages to 140 characters makes it easier to produce and easier to digest.

* 'Pull' not 'push': The ability of users to choose whose tweets they follow makes it less random than email.

* Searchability: Messages can be searched, making the content more accessible than the comments on a social network.

* Mixing the public and the personal: A user's personal contacts are on an equal footing with public figures.

* 'Retweeting': By copying and retransmitting messages, users can turn the network into a giant echo chamber.

* This past week Twitter has been in the news several times:

* Life or death - A snowboarder was found dead but Twitter had been used in the search and kept searchers up-to-date.

Twitter has been used very effectively to raise money for Comic Relief, after the Twestival and the current hitchhike of Twitchhiker, the TwitterTitters have compiled new book of comedy all this raising well deserved funds for Comic Relief.

On the commercial side-a US based IT company has developed a network of sensors that measure the amount of moisture in the soil and compares it to the optimum moisture level. This data is sent to a local network. The data is then turned into a text or Twitter message, to tell you when you need to water your plants. So how cool it is that your plants can now Twitter you to tell you they are thirsty!

Give it a go....

Find out which UK and US politicians use Twitter the most:

www.ft.com/twitteringclasses

and some well known Twitterers….

Will Carling

Russell Brand

Demi Moore

Chris Moyles

Britney Spears

Lance Armstrong

John Cleese

Snoop Dogg

Noel Edmonds

Bill Gates

Richard Branson

Jamie Oliver

Toby Young

Boris Johnson

Over to you, can interim management professionals afford not to join the Twittering classes?

Inspiration for this blog from the FT, The Observer, Computing and Metro, thank you.

To read the original post, go to Clive's blog

About the Author

I am currently a Director of Impact Executives which is a Global Interim Management provider (part of the Harvey Nash Group) and in this role I am at the frontline of dealing with senior clients and candidates across a wide range of change, HR and resourcing issues. I have extensive commercial experience gained through general management and board roles within both Plc's and also through running my own businesses. I have over 18 years international experience of providing cross-functional resourcing solutions to both global businesses and start-ups. I specialise in the following sectors: Technology, Media, Telecommunications, Pharmaceutical & Biotechnology, and Local Authorities. Visit my blog at http://www.impactexecutives.com/journal/clivesexton or the Impact Executives website at www.impactexecutives.com.

What are some good names for the characters in my story?

Alright so I'm writing this story and I need some names. Boys , girls , and pets. It's a vampire story but I don't want any cheesey names like blaze or storm or any stereotypical emo names. I already have some but I don't know what I'd categorize them as. Here they are-
Boys:
Dimitri
Victor
Fidell (pronounced fi- like in fish and dell like the computer)
Christian
Landon
Nate
Brendon
Oliver
Grayson

and Girls:
Tarra (my name)
Alexa
Sydney
Teagan
Erin
Luna
Peyton
Sylvia
I need names that would fit into the same category as these names . . . whatever that category may be.
and Pets:
Misty
Tibbles
Lolo (pronounced low-low)
Mimu (pronounced me-moo)
Toby
For pets I don't mind stereotypical names. They are mythical creature pets though so . . . yea. Thnx in advance
I wanted names that I didn't already have. Not for you to choose names from my list. I just wrote them there so you would know what kind of names I wanted. Sorry for being unclear on that.

Boys:

Lance

Girls:

Ember
Cass

Dell VS Toby's Mom (LazyVlog 10-08-10)