Twitter is the latest new thing. Want to follow John McCain or Al Gore throughout their day? Easy. Just sign up to receive their tweets. While their tweets may provide insights, or just entertainment (Ashton Kutcher and 50 Cent also tweet), does Twitter have value for business management?

The idea may not be far fetched—remember that instant messaging initially met with disdain by corporate IT types but has now become nearly as mainstream in corporations as e-mail.

Like all new technologies before them, the newest communication technologies will open new possibilities for enhancing business performance and enabling value-adding capabilities. The most compelling uses may not be the most obvious. Where will we see the biggest impact? The internet did transform the sale of music (thanks, iTunes) but it didn’t wipe out the neighborhood grocery store (sorry, Webvan).

Some early trends are emerging and they promise to transform today’s best practice standards for knowledge management and customer interaction. New communication tools parallel (foster?) growing social and cultural changes (in most parts of the world) toward greater transparency and democratization. These changes are also playing out within individual businesses and non-profit organizations.

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