Tweet, tweet, tweet

Considering I've been such a proponent of social media in this blog, it's a wonder it took me so long to tune into Twitter. Most of you are probably familiar with Twitter, but since I need to fill at least two paragraphs, humor me. Twitter employs a concept known as microblogging. Basically, it involves the publishing of very brief (typically 140 characters or less) updates for anyone in your network to see. Another form of microblogging is the Facebook status update.

Though I've known about Twitter for sometime, I never used it because I didn't see its practicality. After trying it out for a little bit though, I can see its appeal. Unlike a Facebook status update, where you can only see what your friends are doing, on Twitter you can follow anyone using the service. As a blogger, I spend a lot of time surfing the internet for cool stuff to share. So being able to instantly see what a blogging bigwig like David Armano is posting saves me some work.

This type of program also represents an interesting way for companies to maintain even better and more direct relationships with their customers. While specific marketing tactics are still being explored, there have already been some interesting attempts. For instance, as detailed in the Church of the Customer blog, Southwest Airlines has used Twitter to send out information regarding deals on airfare and company news.

So, if you're interested in Twitter and want to give it a try look me up. My user name is not particularly creative. You can find me by looking for, you guessed it, Rob Frappier.