Currently on the internet and on cable news networks there is a frenzy over social media sites like Facebook and Twitter. While all the social interaction between millions of users is good for these companies and might be useful for the internet as a whole, for the employers this could prove to be a big black hole. Lets examine where social interaction was on the internet earlier and where we are now.

First there was email. In the beginning it was very useful and still is but it quickly overwhelmed users with spam. Nevertheless, it became the official choice of business communication. Email is convenient, but not very interactive. My inbox is still crowded with emails from colleagues going back and forth over a requirements document. Every single day a company loses some productivity when employees spend time reading and writing emails. It has become the norm though and it is here to stay.

Next there were instant messengers. They require much less effort compared to emails and provide instant communication. Again, businesses were initially reluctant to allow such use since each minute an employee spends using such tools is a minute that real work is not being done. Things changed as employers opened up to corporate IMs such as Microsoft Communicator and Lotus Notes, but even today many employers block IM usage altogether.

And next there were social network sites such as Facebook and MySpace. These sites have the ability to suck up a user's time doing ultra unproductive social things like "Liking" a goofy comment a friend made on a picture. Most employers have rightfully blocked these sites on their networks. Things are changing though. Some employers in sales, advertising, "social media" and even real estate are promoting and encouraging the usage of social networks to gain clients. Whether such unsolicited connections work, remains to be seen.

And then there was Twitter. This is a whole different ball game. Twitter is a very simple concept. You just say whatever you want to say in 140 words or less and you connect with people you choose to connect and they do the same. So, as you "follow" more people and broaden your network, you start receiving more "tweets". This is a great tool if you follow people in moderation. But with the crazy cable news networks declaring it as the savior of everything and having competitions to get to a million followers, and twitter showing the number of users following you on your page, you are under constant pressure to keep growing your network. On top of that you have desktop tools like Twhirl that pop up all the new tweets you recieve from your army of follows. However irrelevant these tweets may be, they have the tendency to constantly get your attention and suck you up into reading them and clicking links you would probably not click. This may cause a huge loss in productivity. Some employers are waking upto this and blocking twitter access within their networks. Then again there are others within the sales, advertising and other such fields that are rallying their employees to get on the twitter bandwagon.

In my opinion, twitter is a great tool but following thousands of users does not make much sense unless all you want to do is promote yourself or your brands across a large audience. What do you think?