I have to admit I’m one of more than 5,500 Stephen Fry followers. He joined the Twitter community just seven days ago, has written 81 tweets to date, and brought joy to all of his followers by choosing to follow them too, instead of remaining on his celebrity pedestal like others we could mention. I’m not sure he’s interested in whether or not I’ve been to Total Print! Expo this week, but I’m very much enjoying his updates from Kenya.

He’s started an interesting debate this afternoon though, by posting: “How can I put this tenderly? Requests for speeches/articles/work related stuff will only frighten me away from twitterspace. Usual channels”

Followed by: “Twitter is for social larks, not worky chores, agreed? x” three minutes later. 

I’m still struggling to decide the answer to that question to be honest. Facebook is still my network of choice for social stuff, posting photos of what I get up to at the weekend and general silliness. I don’t accept invitations from clients to become their Facebook “friends”. LinkedIn, on the other hand, wears the sensible business trousers.

But Twitter straddles both camps. The 140-character format has a Facebook feel, but I’m currently using it mostly to network among the PR and journalism community (and to cyber-stalk Stephen Fry). Maybe that’s just because those working in the technology PR and media world are likely to be the early adopters; most of my mates haven’t even heard of it yet.

No doubt its usage will evolve over time. Until then it remains primarily a work tool for me, with a bit of play thrown in for good measure. But I won’t be harrassing Stephen Fry to speak at my clients’ next event…

Jo Jamieson