Twittering

In PR, professionals seem to be paying a lot more attention to technology. This is because technology offers more efficient, sometimes even cheaper, ways of getting a message out. While the latest trends in PR technology have been blogs, RSS feeds and podcasts, another technology is emerging – twittering.

To twitter is a way to broadcast short text messages to large groups of people posted via SMS, IM or Browser. It’s basically a short statement posted immediately or, micro-blogging at lightning speed. Twitter allows a “global community of friends and strangers to answer one simple question: What are you doing.”

While this may seem like the next big fad, the population of users is growing about 20% a week. In its seven-month existence Twitter has over 60,000 members. Marketwatch.com, Reuters and even John Edwards often use Twitter to post links or share short tidbits of info.

The San Francisco Chronicle recently published an in-depth article about twittering. It goes on about the good, bad and the ugly side of this technology, as well as attempting to pinpoint where this technology may be used.

A business model has not yet been formed for twittering. However, Robert Scoble of Scobleizer blog said, "The world has taught me, if you have an audience, a business model will show up. Google demonstrated that. It was in business for four years before it found a business model, and now it's a multibillion-dollar company.”