I've gotten some questions recently about whether companies ought to use Twitter as part of their communications strategies.

The microblogging service is certainly becoming more mainstream, and useful conversations on a broad range of topics abound. If an organization has someone willing to devote a little time/effort to manning a Twitter account, it might well be a good idea. There's one easy way to find out.

Use Twitter Search to check keywords focusing on your area of interest. If the tweets that come up are useful from a business perspective, that's a strong sign that a Twitter strategy would be helpful to you.