Can you communicate anything useful in 140
characters? I admit, I didn’t get Twitter at first. I am a blogger and
enjoy long-form writing, analysis, charts, links to related content,
etc. Twitter seemed trivial to me, and many of the messages I saw on
Twitter in the early days were useless. 
But, one day, sitting in a
conference it became clear to me how to use Twitter. I heard some quotes that were insightful, worthy of sharing, but not enough meat for a whole blog post.
Twitter was the perfect medium for sharing these insightful quotes. At
right is an example of my Tweets from a recent conference.
Guy Kawasaki and others have figured out how to use Twitter
in lots of interesting ways. He calls it “the most powerful marketing
tool invented since TV. And, it’s free, open to everyone. Bill Gates
or LonelyGirl only get 140 characters.”
Twitter can be used as
a teaser or pointer to an interesting story, product offer, or
marketing message. Twitter is not the revenue channel, it is the lead
generator. Twitter is the fastest, easiest, way to get a message to
thousands or millions of people. Twitter is real time, so it is great
for breaking news stories, or following stock market movements. Twitter
may prove to be a very effective real time search engine with results
filtered by what is currently hot, or what your friends and followers
care about. Twitter could be a component of many Location Based
Services that will thrive on cell phones.
For me, Twitter is a
way to share short insightful thoughts, and a way to update people on
conferences, upcoming events, and for organizing meet-ups in different
cities. The people I follow use Twitter this way and I find it useful.
There is also what I call Twitter Litter.
People who use Twitter to tell us what they had for breakfast, that
they are picking up the kids, or other mundane things. To each his
own. But I have no patience for this, even from my friends. But, that is
the cool thing about Twitter. Everyone can use it in their own way, and
everyone can decide who to follow, or not. You can follow me on Twitter @dondodge
