"Is whispering nothing? Is leaning cheek to cheek? is meeting noses?" - Shakespeare, The Winter's Tale (I, ii, 284-285)

Shara Karasic has an excellent guide to Twitter posted today at work.com. The post is an excellent outline of how to use Twitter as a business tool.

The idea is to microblog about what you are doing in 140 characters or less. This microblog goes out to others who can decide to follow what you are doing. If you follow Ms. Karasic's advice, you will search and follow some pretty interesting people and get insight into their day. She also suggests matching your Twitter presence to the goals you want to accomplish through the use of Twitter. For example, using your company logo as the image in your profile if you intend to post about company events and news.

Twitter can be used as a mini-intranet for small companies or for those putting on an event that requires organization. This is a very effective way for employees to stay connected while on assignments out-of-town. Twitter posts can be distributed via SMS so, even if the employees are not connected to the Internet, but have a cell phone connection, brief messages can be exchanged. Examples could include: times and dates of meetings, directions, names of contacts (and perhaps significant others in a social setting), and other brief notes. Ann All at itbusinessedge.com has assembled some good links and makes the case for using Twitter as a business tool at her blog.