This businessman's guide to Twitter

As far as I'm concerned, tweeting is for birds - the flying kind. I just don't get it.

Call me old fashioned, raise your eyebrows in concern - this techo ain't tweeting. I'm all prepared to change my mind, but looking at it through the eyes of Pareto (aka Mr 80/20) Twitter isn't getting my time. Yet.

I'm all for social media. I'm pro-LinkedIn (check out my profile here) and I'm on Facebook. More to the point, the evidence is right here - in my (slightly erratic) blogging.

Social media is often framed as a cheap and effective business tool, and it is relatively cheap in terms of actual cash spent, but it does have a cost. While blogging and social networking can enable your business to connect with customers and gain wider reach (increasing brand awareness, showcasing thought leadership and driving traffic to your website) it does require a significant investment of time - either yours or someone else's.

But back to Twitter - what is it anyway?

Unless you've been abstaining from all forms of broadcast media, you will have (at least) heard of Twitter. Basically, it's a free social networking and micro-blogging service that allows users to share updates, known as tweets. A tweet is a text-based post of no more than 140 characters, displayed on the user's profile page and delivered to other users who are following (have subscribed to) them - similar to blog subscription via RSS. We're all bombarded with information daily. Instinctively, Twitter reeks of information overload for someone who routinely threatens to declare email bankruptcy. I do not want to know what Lily Allen is doing right now and, more to the point, I can't imagine that anyone would want to know what I'm doing. Perversely, I wouldn't mind tweeting when my daughter wakes up in the middle of the night - a bit of empathy wouldn't go astray then.

Counter intuitively, Twitter is often touted as a social media method of reducing the incoming flow by filtering it according to your exact activity, location, frame of mind - right now. A good example might be travel tweeting. Rather than trawling through reviews for restaurants near your hotel in Melbourne, one could (if that way inclined) tweet. Unfortunately/Fortunately, I'm not tweeting regularly so i can honestly say that I think it would be pretty rude to expect instantaneous assistance from a community that I'm not part of. There's no trust; no relationship - we just don't know each other.

Dusting off one of my favourite 'from the Greek' words - Twitter is not the panacea for all that ails your online activity. Sure, it can provide your business with a means of promoting your product or service, generating feedback and monitoring brand perceptions. It is also an interactive way for communication to occur between your business, your customers and prospects - if they're using it.

Twitter recently reported its top 500 users, many of which are celebrities and brands with cult followings like MTV and Nike. Worth a look Twitterholic before you dive in the deep end.

The question is not whether Twitter can do all of these things. The real question is whether it's the best way for you to achieve these objectives. And if it is, are you willing to invest the effort needed to make it work?

Our experience is that Facebook and Twitter, even LinkedIn, are not yet widely regarded as business tools in the Australian corporate sector - many of our clients have one or all of the sites barred company-wide. For tweeting to become widespread in boardrooms across Australia, I reckon we'd be looking at some pretty major culture change. And again, I have to return to 80/20 - does Twitter make the cut when you strip off the buzz?

Shortly, Twitter is set to reveal its new tools for business (although, controversially, these might not be free). bwired won't be tweeting for now, but we'd never say never.