This morning it was the turn of the broadsheet financial press to pinpoint, dissect and analyse the current craze that we've all become so familiar with over the past few months. So what is it, who's using it and why?

The FT's Lucy Kellaway believes, '[Twitter] is potentially the best communication tool there is; the trouble is that most executives are making a complete hash of using it.' She suggests Tweeting has two clear advantages: keeping communications to a minimum and spreading simple messages so that 'followers' go looking for more information. She illustrated this with Alistair Darling's 'real-time' update of the Budget report last Wednesday. Apparently it worked for her!

Cari Tuna at the WSJ, reiterates an important point: companies are new to this form of communicating and they aren't sure where they can go. After a couple of 'early bird' problems, some technology firms remain cautious about taking the leap into the unknown and with good reason. Intel says it will avoid 'using blogs and Twitter for investor issues, because it fears violating SEC disclosure rules or inviting public criticism in a company-hosted forum'.

Nevertheless there are tangible benefits of being connected, 'allowing [businesses] to spread company news and track the opinions of employees, investors and outsiders.' All that's needed is a little caution. Firms need to create a simple social-media policy before leveraging new forms of technology.

Cognito is working with its clients to devise good social-media strategies and used in the right way, Tweeting can help position your proposition in a positive light.