Howard Kurtz, the media writer for The Washington Post and host on CNN, writes today that Twitter is no longer for the ultra-hip.
It's becoming a conventional tool of communication and needs to be treated far more seriously as a way in which one can gauge public opinion and tap into public discourse.
Kurtz writes of his own experiences in the Twitterverse and concludes that it's becoming a great resource to hear from people whose opinions you value and from people whose opinions will surprise.
"Twitter has its tedious side," he writes. "I don't have something fascinating to say every few minutes, and neither does anyone else. But in this era of corporate downsizing, journalists had better get good at making friends."