Jury’s still out as to whether all the Twitter hype is just that–hype–or a trend that’s here to stay. Only time will tell.

I’ve been twittering now for a few weeks, and I can definitely see its charm (I love the challenge of saying something interesting in 140 characters). I’m seeing great networking possibilities. When I joined, I did a search on “copywriters” and then “novelists” (which is what I am in my night life) and was able to “follow” all sorts of interesting people with similar interests, many of whom are now following me (I was very excited when I discovered one of my favorite writers–Susan Orlean–is on Twitter). I usually begin my weekday tweets with a poll question geared towards my fellow writers, and I’m starting to sense that my followers are getting used to my questions (which more and more people are “replying” to) and that they may even look forward to them.

But enough of that. Let’s get focused and think about eCommerce sites. Imagine having 10,000 or even 1,000 “followers” (customers or potential customers) to whom you instantly and unobtrusively can tweet about a product. And this contact with your customers is FREE? Methinks you’re starting to see the benefit.