There are more of my thoughts on this here:
http://wearesocial.net/blog/2009/01/corporate-communications-radically-changed/

There’s clearly an opportunity to have a better way of finding twitterers in your local area, and I think this is what you’re looking for.

I live in Suffolk and would love to find more twitter users in my area, but this is difficult. Yes, you can do a search on a particular town name (if people have put that in their location), and there is also the Twinkle app/service, but I haven’t found an easy-to-use service that shows twitter users close to me. If someone knows of one then please get in touch!

Such a service could make a big difference to Portland [Dorset] too !

Even Hitler loves twitter:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/pda/2009/jan/12/twitter-digitalmedia

“This bizarre attack on Euroepean companies”

Everyone I know who is non-tech or non-media hasn’t a clue what Twitter is when I tell them I use it.

I had a real surprise when I attended a social media seminar at a university last week. The speaker asked for a show of hands about what social media services people use. When asked about Twitter, only 3 people in a room full of hundreds had their hand up.

This included numerous Digital Marketing students, who I’d have expected to have definitely been early adopters.

Point is, the best times for Twitter are still to come, and I look forward to it this year, as the number of Europeans and people from all over the world swell to Twitter.

As for business users, I’m personally trying to champion the benefits, which they can get out of the service.

If I had to look on them both right now I would say that twitter is a copy of blip, and a really bad one…

I know that’s not the main subject of this post but maybe that’s one of the reasons why people hate twitter so much? When you don’t go forward in the internet you’re commiting a suicide….

I think for people like myself working within the social media marketing arena, then we can see that there is a certain amount of truth here that the use and uptake of the social media tools such as blogging, twitter, video sharing etc does lag behind the US in the corporate world. The UK also approaches them in different ways.

This doesn’t mean that it’s unloved or unused – in many cases it’s simply that it’s just not understood. That comes down to education and companies (particularly in the current economic environment) seeing that this is the perfect time to engage more with their customers and potential clients. What an opportunity to steal a march over the competition!

So, perhaps in addition to debating it here, we should also be out encouraging more people/companies to try these tools so they can see the benefits they bring. Articles like the Forbes one merely makes that more of a challenge but in no way reduces the opportunities they offer.

And the icing on the cake goes to Forbes for changing the article title hours later. Pick one gun and stick to it folks. FAIL.

When search by location still worked it was amazing to see how many people where twittering from different locations in Germany, a number never seen in blogging. I have a list of over 130 german politicians twittering (and they are just beginning) as well as over 130 PR people, major german magazines have adapted twitter (with huge followership) … and that is just in the last few months. Btw this weekend there is even a dedicated microblogging conference in Hamburg.

Neither blogging nor other media has seen taken on that fast. Same for the companies: they are taking their first steps in twittering, while at the same time being cautious about it.

Btw: I take a non twittering company over a twittering one any day as long as they give me the information / access I need from them.
Nicole

Another example of socmed mavens handwaving to no-one except themselves.

You’re first commenter is far closer to the mark.

How does what Forbes say translate to ‘hating?’ I don’t see it.

How may US CEO’s use Twitter as a total %. If you went to ACME Manufacturing Plant in Podunk, Missouri d’you really think you’d see a Twitterverse?.

Outside the Silicon Valley echochamber and its echopots around the planet there is still very low penetration, the service is far from mass adoption.

Applications are being built by the minute. A lot of developers may earn money over time because of twitter.

No other company has been so selfless until twitter appeared. The whole API thingy got a new meaning due to twitter.

Go Twitter

P.S. I support twitter and the API so much not only because its good but also since I have a site dedicated to it