The Queen of Twitter

Twitter transformed Laura Fitton from a housebound hausfrau to a fully-booked, jet-setting social media consultant. "All my work now comes from people I know through Twitter," she says, "All of it."

And, once starved for intellectual stimulation, she is now refreshed by her regular contact with stimulating people.

How does Ms Fitton use Twitter? She posts links to her blog postings and multi-media experiments on Seesmic, Qik, Utterz, YouTube, Blip.tv, TwitterGram and Flickr. These are all used to "send out little snippets" of her life. Some are business-related; most are personal. (When her car was robbed, Laura complained to the Twitosphere and was love bombed with support).

She does believe, however, that Twitter should be used for business. "You miss out massively," she says, "when you dismiss this stuff as new-fangled and faddish.... Find the people in your organization who are drawn to it, and give them a little space and encouragement to discover and play."

Laura believes that Twitter can be "a great vehicle for a brand extension if you are willing to produce feeds of cool, useful things." She also believes that Twitter should be a mainstay of internal communication in every department.

She believes that Twitter won't encourage the wasting of company time. It will merely take up some of the time that is already being wasted.

She does admit that it takes a while to connect with a critical mass of brilliant people but after that the "ROI can be extraordinary."

Laura's prediction: Within 4 years social networking will be as pervasive as email. Her management advice: "Hire smart people, give them conditions to succeed, and get out of their way."

From and interview with Sheldon Israel. Hat Tip: xtremerecruiting.tv