Chris Brogan's "50 Ideas on Using Twitter for Business"

This piece was extremely helpful, especially for someone (like me) who is just beginning to figure out all the nooks and crannies of Twitter.  It's full of wonderful tips and information to get users more acquainted with all that Twitter has to offer.
The first thing that stuck out to me about Chris Brogan's article "50 Ideas on Using Twitter for Business" was the incredible number of links.  Before I even began reading, I noticed all the orange links that were placed throughout the whole article.  Immediately this signified a piece that would be very user friendly and helpful. Another thing that stood out to me is the way Brogan breaks up the piece into five separate sections:

• First steps
• Ideas about WHAT to Tweet
• Some sanity for you
• The negatives people will throw at you
• Some positives to throw back

These titles let readers have a clear understanding of what information each will cover.  Also, they seem to go in a very logical and chronological order for users who are new or who are still trying to figure out how to use it.

It's really helpful, as mentioned earlier, that Brogan links to other Twitter related sites and Twitter applications like Twitter Search and Tweetdeck.  He also incorporates other beneficial sites like TinyURL into his ideas.  Lastly he linked to wonderful examples of Twitter accounts for companies and people.  This is a great and simple way to encourage readers to navigate to Twitter to not only see the examples he's providing, but also to start accounts of their own and incorporate the tips he's offering into their Twitter lives.
These are 10 of Brogan's tips I found to be very beneficial:

• Because listening is No. 1, build an account and immediately start using Twitter Search to listen for your name, your competitor's name and terms that relate to you. 
  
• Talk to people about their interests.
• Ask questions.  Twitter is great for getting opinions.
• Follow interesting people.  If you find someone who tweets interesting things, see who she follows, and follow her.
• You don't have to read every tweet.Learn to use tools like TinyURLand bit.ly that shorten up URL's.  It makes things cleaner.
• Share the human side of your company.Don't answer the question "What are you doing?"  Answer the question "What's caught your attention?"
• Twitter can break news much faster than other sources.
• Twitter is a great tool for business development.
  

Tweets on Tonight Show are fake

Just one day after the airing of Conan O'Brien's show featuring William Shatner reading offensive tweets from Levi Johnston's Twitter, O'Brien announced they had in fact been the tweets of an impostor.

On the Thursday, Nov. 5 show, Shatner appeared again, reading real tweets from Johnston.

Do you think the responsibility to correct situations like this rests in Twitter's hands?  Should Twitter apologize to Johnston and his attorney?  Should Twitter take measures to prevent things like this from happening again?

Shatner chirps Levi Johnston's tweets on The Tonight Show

William Shatner visited The Tonight ShowTonightShow, Wednesday, Nov. 4 to read tweets from Levi Johnston's Twitter page.

The tweets shared were random and some were offensive, talking about taxi drivers that can't speak English and finding some 'good weed.'

Johnston and his lawyer say he never said such things and claim the tweets are absolutely fake. 

They also believe Twitter needs to step up in circumstances like this, take responsibility, and make sure actions are made to correct the situation.

Shatner joined Conan O'Brien earlier in the year to present a similar poetic reading of Sarah Palin's tweets.

What do you think of the notion Twitter needs to take responsibility?  Is that really Twitter's duty?  Does Twitter need to handle public matters like this?

The possibility has also been raised that these tweets are coming from a Twitter Levi Johnston impersonator.  If these truly aren't the real Levi Johnston's messages, does the role of Twitter change or remain the same?

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