Are you like me? Sick of all the media attention Twitter has been receiving lately? It’s so over the top, you’d think its the next sliced bread.

I have been a user since 2007, and only now over the past few weeks has it gotten any attention and I am completely over hearing about. I’ll continue using it, as it is useful and fun but I don’t need to be told by news anchors who know nothing about it, how fantastic it is.

John C. Dvorak a noted technology columnist has written an on point article about why it is useful, and not just a fad. It may be a fad with the media – however in the long term for end users it could be a long term service.

‘The Nine Ways to Use Twitter’ is the article and two of my favourites are…

Public Address System: Because I produce a couple of streaming podcasts that have no official start times, I use Twitter to announce the fact that a streaming show is going to begin. It’s a bit like using Twitter as a public address system.

Crowd-sourcing: I also use it to poll people and for crowd-sourcing information. I can ask my Twitter followers a question that I cannot find the answer to, and within seconds someone will know the answer or have a link to it.

Of course for some of these to work, you need a lot of followers. Otherwise its just a nice way of keeping in touch. Just like Facebook, but for those of us who don’t want application invites.

Need someone else to follow? @mikebeckham is the way to go…