I just came across a cool new application for Twitter - TwitCam provides a simple means to distribute a videocast on your Twitter feed.

TwitPic, another interactive tool for Twitter, allows you to post pictures into your feed, and many people can view it right within your Twitter feed.

These tools allow you to add significant interactivity to your Twitter conversation, and it is a nice distribution method if photo and video are already a part of your web content strategy.

Do you use Twitter? Have you found TwitPic to be a valuable tool? How do you see TwitCam applying to your web business? Please share!

There has been a lot of buzz about Twitter recently as a communications and marketing tool, and explosive growth has left the company struggling to keep up capacity.

That being said, some are not so enamoured.

If you're wondering what it is all about, Twitter is a tool that allows people to post short messages via their computer or cell phone to a group of people who have decided to "follow" them. Some call it "micro-blogging" because you are limited to 140 characters.

Business Week recently posted an article with two people arguing the pros and cons of Twitter as a business tool. I thought I'd put in my own two cents:

1. Twitter may be good and bad. It depends on what someone's business goals are. I am willing to say that there are businesses that may find Twitter to  not be an effective tool for their goals. On the other hand, there are a lot of organizations out there finding creative ways to harness Twitter effectively.
   
2. It may be a little early to tell. There was an exact argument about the web and blogs early on in their evolution. When the web seemed like an endless series of poorly designed personal web pages and search engines had not developed fully, it seemed hard to some to justify a web presence. Today, not that effective use of the web for business evolved enough to reveal it as a killer tool, a web presence is fait accompli.

Before you dismiss Twitter as a loudspeaker for personal rants or else dive in with two feet and have all employees Twittering without a strategy, I suggest you keep an open mind. Participate in the Twitter community and make your own conclusions, but don't do it quickly. I see a lot of "noise" out there for sure, but I see a new creative use for Twitter every day.

So my answer to the question I posted in the title is: too soon to tell. What are your thoughts? Are you using Twitter as a business tool? Do you consider it a productive app or a waste of time?