The revolution will be tweeted

What are you doing? Four little words that pack a mighty punch. For the uninitiated, Twitter (says Wikipedia), is "...a social networking and micro-blogging service that enables its users to send and read other users' updates, tweets, which are text-based posts of up to 140 characters in length."

So, 140 character micro conversations. Sounds harmless (and, to the uninitiated, rather pointless). To quote my 69-year-old mother, "...who would possibly care what I was doing?" The answer's in the numbers. With more than six million Twitterers, growing at an astounding rate of (according to Hubspot's State of the Twittersphere Q4 2008) between five and 10 thousand each day, there must, surely, be something to it.

But is it for everybody? I'm sure in the early days of facebook, MySpace and, well, radio and television, people asked themselves the same question. Crazy thing is, Twitter is already mainstream - so if you want to discuss or announce anything, the conversation should be on Twitter (and probably already is).

If celebrity usage is a measure of success, check out who has joined the tweeting hoards... Stephen Fry (@stephenfry), Britney Spears, Barack Obama (@BarackObama), Lance Armstrong (@lancearmstrong) and THE_REAL_SHAQ (@THE_REAL_SHAQ)

But should PR care? Does it have the power to shape and change opinion? I think, increasingly, yes.

Take for instance the recent crash of Turkish Airlines flight 1951 near Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam. Twitterer Jonathan Nip (@nipp) lived near the scene, and broke break the story well ahead of traditional media.

Other Twitter breaking stories include US Airways Flight 1549's Hudson River landing, coverage of the Sizchuan earthquake and on-the-spot coverage of the Mumbai terrorist attacks.

Historically, these stories would have probably spread first via SMS. What's interesting and compelling is that Twitter enables instant global news delivery. Technology has enabled small communities to become large communities. And the ability to pass on (or "re-tweet") stories has meant they quickly spread virally across the twittersphere and beyond.

Twitter's success is testament to the social media tenant that everyone can publish. With the entire online population empowered to report, stories will increasingly break online. The new model seems to be Twitter stories leading to more in-depth analysis in traditional media channels.

These channels are also seeing Twitter as a source of content and viewer collaboration. Sky News has appointed a Twitter correspondent, and increasingly Twitter is being used by broadcast outlets such as CNN for real-time talkback (twalkback?) on topics of the day.

But when journalists themselves turn to Twitter, you have to wonder about the way in which news will be broken. Reuters editor in chief David Schlesinger in effect scooped his own company when he tweeted George Soros' Davos statement "the global economic collapse could end up being worse than the Great Depression" - ahead of posting over the traditional Reuters wire.

From a corporate perspective, there are more and more tales of Twitter-centric business and branding success.  Dell, for example, credits Twitter with producing US$1 million in revenue over the past year and a half through sale alerts. In essence, people who signed up to follow Dell on Twitter received messages when discounted products became available from the company's Home Outlet Store.

When under attack for a bad taste advertisement that showed a cartoon calorie committing suicide, PepsiCo turned to Twitter.  In response to criticism, Communications Manager Huw Gilbert, tweeted: "Huw from Pepsi here. We agree this creative is totally inappropriate; we apologise and please know it won't run again."

Twitter critics saw the post as a positive and authentic response, and were generally supportive of Pepsi's quick action.

So what does all of this mean for those of us in PR? Will Twitter go the way of the dodo? Is it bubble waiting to burst? A qualified "highly likely" to both, but the reality is, the growth and popularity of this tool and similar services such as China's fanfou, Taiwan's buboo, and Thailand's Noknok cannot be ignored.

Twitter offers companies a chance to foster conversations with their key stakeholder audiences. Whether it be journalists (who are increasingly tweeting themselves) or customers, a tweet or direct message on Twitter can help create both an instant response and a initiate lasting relationship.

Whether through 140 character Twitter pitches, real time updates from events, direct customer communications, breaking news, early alerts on issues, or growing maintaining relationships with influencers and constituents, it seems if the answer to "What are you doing?" isn't "spending time on Twitter", you're missing a trick.