http://beth.typepad.com/beths_blog/2009/04/twitter-for-activism-tool-vs-strategy-debate-and-a-new-twitter-activism-guide.html

For example, I’m a pretty avid personal user of Twitter, and I understand and have participated in several types of usage, whether it’s livetweeting a conference, reporting or commenting on something live while it’s still happening, participating in a Twitter chat, spreading the word on a campaign, and sharing mundane and probably not-so-interesting details about my personal life.

I’ve held off on using it as a tool for my nonprofit organization, yet (that’s about to change) because: a) most of my audience isn’t on Twitter and doesn’t get it; b) due to limited staffing, I’ve found it difficult to keep up with on a regular basis; and c) I haven’t had a real goal in mind — something I wanted to accomplish by using it. And I think that’s what Colin is talking about — using it under these conditions might not be the best use of my limited time and resources.

So adding a user name to GoFollow and adding a button to my website indicating that we’re on Twitter might make us look cool, but doesn’t really accomplish that much. But I’m on the path to solving a-c above, and so you will see us on Twitter soon, as the result of strategic thought — not jumping on the bandwagon.

I completely agree with your point that Twitter itself is not a strategy. I think that the same can be argued for all new and social media tools, that in and of themselves they do not constitute a solid approach to communicating.

Actually, I wrote a similar piece yesterday on The MediaBackpage where I discussed the need for communicators to take a more holistic approach that utilizes these types of tactics to tell their stories.

Best,

Jason Cohen
CityCast Media