Twitter de...de. Twitter de dumb?

I had the opportunity to participate at a Web 2.0 seminar for some local business owners and workers at a Chamber of Commerce event in northern California yesterday. It was set up by Dagaz Solutions, the folks who designed my own web site.

Some three hundred business folks showed up, eager to learn how to jump into this brave new world of social networking as a way to get and keep more clients. All the usual suspects were in the spotlight. Facebook, YouTube, MySpace, LinkedIn, and the latest craze, Twitter.

In fact just that morning the Today Show did a long interactive segment on the phenomenon of Twitter. Turns out a lot of celebrities and media folks are using it, having found yet another way to shamelessly expose themselves to anyone who cares even remotely about their sometimes shallow minute-by-minute thoughts and activities.

Don’t get me wrong here. I’m on Twitter, and think Twitter can be useful and fun. It’s billed as “a service for friends, family and co-workers to communicate and stay connected through the exchange of quick, frequent answers to one simple question: What are you doing?” I actually consider it a new form of broadcasting, something I’ve been doing on TV and radio for decades.

Like other media folks hoping for attention in already crowded cyberspace, I now count how many twitter followers I have. (About 1,500 and hopefully growing.) But the problem here is getting hooked on the mundane and missing the big picture. Twitter and other social networking sites are simply a means to connect and communicate in an increasingly lonely world.

That’s right. You may think you are turning outward in a big way, but you are still by yourself on a computer. And that is no substitute for the joy of personal contact…in person. And too much computer time could also be hurting your financial health.

After the seminar a lady approached me with her problem. She sells ad space for a local newspaper, which could become an endangered species. So she sells what’s often called combo-space, meaning advertise in the print edition and we’ll also give you space for banner ads on our web-site.

But her job is so demanding she says she has no time to check out her Facebook page, so has not opened it in months. Twitter for her is a silly luxury taking time she cannot afford. She told me that for her time is money, and she makes a better sale in person than on the Internet.

That has me thinking about that well-worn business discipline called “time management”. All the social networking sites can be useful tools for business and pleasure, if they are managed correctly. If not they can quickly become addictive. What I’m trying to do right now is schedule specific times during the day or evening to Twitter, answer FaceBook requests, and make sure my LinkedIn profile is up-to-date.

So don’t be surprised the next time you check what I’m up to via Twitter, and find nothing there. Don’t worry. I’ll get back to you, when I’m ready.

(Brian Banmiller is a national Business Correspondent for CBS News Radio, free lance writer and public speaker. The former television business news anchor in San Francisco can be reached at brian@banmilleronbusiness.com .)