We’re all time poor these days, so keeping up with friends, colleagues and team mates (even virtual ones) can be difficult. Whether it’s just reaching out for help or saying “hi”, Twitter has become a tool I’ve grown quite fond of to help me stay connected.

Launched in October 2006, Twitter is a combination of web instant messaging and sms-mobile phone texting. It allows you to:

• immediately communicate with all those registered users within your trusted network

• receive Twitter direct messages on your mobile phone or by email

• immediately communicate directly with an individual in your trusted network in much the same way as you would send an email or a text-message

• manage that trusted network, from whose messages you follow to those who you allow to see your messages

Given that a team’s cohesion, even the virtual ones, rely on a balance of both task and social factors, Twitter’s simplicity allows it to fit very neatly into the mix to meet both needs. It’s probably best used as a browser-plugin, like Twitbin for Firefox, sitting on the side of your browser giving you message updates from those who you follow every 5 minutes or so.

And it’s a tool that more and more individuals are using for quick communication with HitWise statistics for Twitter from Aug 06 to Mar 07 show that adoption is still on the rise.

You can even get BBC news feeds via a convenient mashup by Mario Menti. As far as user-managed subscriptions go, I wouldn’t be surprised if corporate bodies started to take notice of this simple yet powerful platform and begin twittering to their audience and even listenning to them via this channel as well.

M