I’ve heard of twitter for quite some time now, and towards the end of last year, twitter seemed to be in all the ‘big things for 2009’ predictions. Although I liked the idea of the ability to communicate instantly to a group of ‘followers’, it seemed to me no more than a status update similar to the one you could use (and that I enjoy a great deal) on facebook. So I couldn’t understand what the fuss was about.

Then I came across this blogpost in mashable.com on whether European companies should or actually do twitter. I thought the question was a good way to start exploring the subject. I then posted the question on a forum on linkedin.com (something I am finding increasingly interesting) and got a number of comments (I think you might need to be a group member to follow the discussion) on the subject, as well as very interesting information.

The long and short of it is that it is a subject of great interest, and an increasing number of individuals and companies are starting to use twitter. What makes it so interesting is, like most things that make it big online, that it is simple. In fact, to a certain degree, it is a simple form of blog, or sometimes called ‘microblog’, and it enables you to update people on your thoughts and movements in less than 140 caracters.  The FT.com wrote a story about it (registration needed) called ” Twitter uses 140 characters to change the world”, which gives you a good idea of where they are heading.

There is also an article in the BBC online entitled “Why celebrities love Twittering “ which is pointing to a new phenomenon. Stars and celebrities are starting to use twitter, it gives you a real feel of ‘intimacy’ as you can track there movements. Some of the ones mentioned in the article include Stephen Fry and Jonathan Ross

Steffen (occasional contributor to this blog and team member of ZN) also wrote about this only few days ago discussing why he thought twitter was worthwhile. 

Clearly a topic worth following. In the meantime, you can check me out on twitter (http://twitter.com/pweiss) although I make no promise of being interesting or relevant (that will come later).