This article appears courtesy of www.cioupdate.com

Almost overnight it would seem Twitter has come out of left feld to take over the micro-blogging world (or, depending on your perspective, create it). From CNN to the Fortune 500, Twitter is making huge in-roads into our culture. You can use it to post whatsoever is on your mind or search it like a National Security Agency spook to see what is being said about almost anything. You can keep up with cricket scores or post a change management update ... really, if you think about something and can write about it in 140 characters or less, you can "tweet" it―complete with links to pics, video and other articles and/or, gulp, other tweets.

So, as the enterprise debate about how to handle this powerful new communications tool gets underway―when to use it, how to use it, who should use it―the question for you, as the CIO, is "Should I use it?" The short answer is a qualifed "Yes". If you are a forward-thinking CIO who wants to make his mark, Twitter is probably a good tool for your toolbox. If your are more the head's- down type who doesn't really spend a lot of time outside of the data centre, then Twitter probably doesn't have a
lot to offer you personally. Your service management staff, however, might benefit greatly. Twitter can also help you in other ways without you having to post anything, but more of that later. Either way, however, Twitter is something that you, as the CIO, are going to have to understand and deal with.  

"It creates a richer personal connection in some ways, but it's virtually impossible to discuss anything in depth," said Stephen Hultquist, a consultant and CIO for hire. "So, you have to realise what it's good at doing" ... and not doing.

Tweets with a sting

Twitter can get you in trouble real fast. There is the story going around of a senior manager working on a FedEx account who, without realising the power and reach of Twitter, tweeted from his Memphis, (a city in USA and the home of FedEx corporate office) hotel room that if he had to live in "this city" he'd kill himself ... or something to that effect. Well, to cut a long story short, that tweet got back to the folks at FedEx and a short time later their agency lost the account. There were probably other factors involved but Twitter played a role.

This one example shows the power of this new medium. If the manager had said those unfattering things about the city that is home to FedEx's  headquarters to his or her spouse in private or even blurted it out in a bar with folks from FedEx in the room, it would still have been no big deal. But he didn't. He used a public medium, readable by anyone, anywhere with Internet access.

"I've defnitely seen a few cases everybody from industry analysts to executives who tweeted when they shouldn't and it's led to everything from lawsuits to lost market share," said Jim Haughwout, vice president of Technology and the CIO of Neighborhood America (NA), a enterprise social networking software development house.

Open and searchable

Twitter is not email, but its similar. It's not social networking, but it's similar. It's not SMS, but it's similar. It's not IM but, yes, you guessed it, it's similar. Twitter is all of these things and something all its own. It really is new and it really is powerful. The unrest in Iran over the summer gives you some idea of the power that can come from an Internet-based, public, real-time, instant-messaging, SMS-type platform that is searchable. And maybe that's the key that sets it apart from the others: its searchability.

Because Twitter's API's are open, thousands of developers have written thousands of applications that interface directly with the underlying platform. These engines allow you to search the Twitter stream for whatever you want: brand information, personal information, corporate information, product information ... anything, and in real time.

This brings us back to the central question: should you tweet? And the short answer: Ultimately, you have to decide what you want to get out of the collective stream of consciousness that is Twitter. If you are looking to communicate better with your colleagues, employees and peers, it could help but you have to be careful about what you say and how you say it.

Tweet and sensibilities

Like the early days of email, dashing off a quick, ill-worded reply can get you in trouble (at least in Memphis). Yet, the etiquette is still being worked out as we speak. So, the rule of thumb is the same one you use with any written medium that is public: think before you write and then re-read and think again. "Don't tweet what you think of your secretary," cautions Hultquist.

No matter what you think of Twitter though, you have to be aware of what it is and what it can and can't do, said Chris Curran, CTO at Diamond Management Consulting and an avid Twitterer.

"You've got to determine whether it's something that's good or it's something that's bad," he said. "That's another reason for the CIO to understand it: so they can have an informed opinion and not be a chicken little when the chief marketing officer or CEO comes knocking on the door asking questions.”

Vendors tweet too

Brand management is one of those new catch phrases (well, at least to me, an IT journalist) that has caught on with the rise of social media. The one-way street that advertisers have enjoyed for so long is being turned on its head with the consumer now in control. The corporate world is listening. As the CIO, you are going to be in the hot seat when it comes to explain what effect these tools are having on the corporate brand. The CIOs I spoke with for this article all use it, for example, to see how a particular vendor's products are doing in the market before they commit to using them. That's powerful. They also use Twitter to see how their corporate brand is faring out "there".

"Twitter is a new channel, yet it is the only channel right now that you can put things out there for anyone to see and also use it for quickly searching on what other people are saying and find people that are talking about topics you are interested in," said Haughwout. "Again, it's another vehicle for marketing and communications."

Haughwout uses Twitter to do informal test marketing. When NA was developing one of its own social networking products, Haughwout used Twitter to see if people were more inclined to use chatting functionality in things like Facebook or if they were more wedded to their AIM accounts. He did this so he could better understand where to build the chat hooks into their product. About 60% of the folks that tweeted back liked the social media style chat so NA went with that direction. "If you're a Fortune 500 brand you're probably large enough to get the equivalent of a focus group."

CIO-for-hire Hultquist uses Twitter to get action on problems he is having with vendors. He'll tweet that is having problems with some product or other and, if the company is large enough and is listening, then as often as not, it would respond. "I might post a tweet saying I'm dealing one last time with company A or I can't believe how poor this product is."

Collaboration

Perhaps most of all, said Hultquist, Twitter is a collaboration tool. One that is breaking down barriers between leaders and those they lead. This is especially important going forward. The new generations are working in a much fatter, less loyal business world where who you know and who knows you is more important than how long you worked at Company X or Y. In this world, leaders need to adopt different leadership styles: styles based more on collaboration and sharing than fat. Twitter can help with that effort. “If they want to be the old-fashion, authoritarian leader then, no, it's not going to be helpful to them," Hultquist said. "But, if they understand that that doesn't work very well any more and what is much more workable is a collaborative approach to leadership, I think it's a good tool for that.”
"We’re learning that you can't hide anything," he continued. "So, the myth that you are in control somehow because you have knowledge that others don't have, is really harmful to you as a leader. So, instead, fip it on it's head and develop trusting relationships with your staff and the people you support in ways that show your human side – as somebody that wants to collaboratively work with them. I think Twitter is a good tool for that."

— Allen Bernard is the Managing Editor of CIOUpdate.com

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