Gartner have made another apocryphal prediction, that by 2011, enterprise microblogging would be a standard feature of 80 per cent of social software platforms. The most popular would be Twitter, but other apps could also include Plurk and Jaiku. Whether apocryphal or unquestionably trivial no doubt this statement will now be repeated ad nauseam in conference after conference just like their 2007 virtual worlds prediction (that 80% of active internet users will have a virtual worlds account by 2011, not necessarily Second Life).
According to Gartner the four ways businesses can use Twitter are:
Direct: Twitter can be used as a marketing or public relations channel, much like corporate blogs. At a minimum, companies should register their major brand names.
Indirect: Company employees are using Twitter to enhance their personal and company reputations. It can raise profiles of individuals and the organisations they work for.
Internal: Employees are using Twitter to communicate what they are doing and what ideas occur to them. That said, Gartner warned there was no guarantee of security.
Inbound signalling: Twitter streams and search tools can provide information about what customers and competitors are saying about the company.
