I’ve linked to a guide to twitter before and I play with my own Twitter account too. So far I’ve only really used it to post not-so-relevant or naval-gazing updates. I’ve seen it as the same look-at-me status updates for Facebook. So I now have them combined so when I update Twitter it sends that status over to Facebook.

But yesterday I finally had my “Ah-ha” moment for Twitter. One of it’s potentially productive uses is as a listserve for IM/SMS. Consider this:

Let’s say one of a small office/ministry/group of say 10 people in the group needs to send a short notification to the group (prayer request, status update, report). In my experience, the way this is done is by sending an email to everyone. I may or may not have a group set up to send it to all of them, but usually I’d type in each address. They would get the update in email.

Now consider Twitter. Let’s say they are all following each other in Twitter. The person who wants to send the quick update can do so in one of many ways: an email to one address to post to Twitter, a text (SMS) message to one Twitter address, use the Twitter website, use the new Jott phone service to use voice, or using their own IM client send a quick IM to Twitter. The mode to send the update can be the same, better (one address), and more versatile. The point here is there is always one address to notify many through various mediums.

For the people who receive the notification, they aren’t tied to email either. They could get the update by email if they want or could get it right away as an IM or text message. If they want it later (monitor it), they can get it by RSS. The point here is there are again various mediums to receive the update.

So it is like a listserve in a way. I can update my twitter in various ways and all those who need/want to get the update can receive it in various ways (that they control) — and it’s subscription based because each person choses to follow me (or others) or not.

I can totally see this now as a great application for a small group, particularly a scattered and mobile group for short, quick communications.