Communicators think Twitter is a fad, poll says

Lack of time or staff coupled with cautious management delay creation of a plan

If you’re guilty of jumping on the Twitter bandwagon, you’re not alone.

A recent eMarketer study projects Twitter users will reach 18.1 million by 2010. Twitter users already number more than 12.1 million.

But not everyone believes Twitter’s popularity will rise.

A recent poll of communicators conducted by Ragan Communications and PollStream found that 54 percent of 702 respondents claim Twitter is a fad and will plateau.

“[It’s a fad] because everybody’s doing it,” says Bob Hirschfeld, senior public information officer for Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. “Ashton Kutcher and CNN have a steady supply of fans who want to know what they do. People like us, people with a job to do, every so often we do something of interest to the general public [but] we don’t have that steady supply of stuff that the public is interested in.”