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Whether you believe in social media or not, there’s a bigger trend at work here.  Maybe even a couple.

Social media has evolved quite a bit in the past few years.  Or should I say, “devolved?”  We’ve gone from the flashing lights carnival and dizzying variety of Facebook and My Space to the more professional look of LinkedIn.  Now, business people are discovering Twitter.  Instead of offering amusing/irritating applications that allow us to take and display quizzes ranging from our favorite brands of beer to our favorite insects, Twitter offers us 140 characters.  That’s it.

So the user’s initial question might be “what can I do with 140 characters?”  The answer?  “Exactly.  What can you do with 140 characters?”

We live in a society (and this is not necessarily a good thing) where multitasking and unrealistic deadlines are the norm.  Even in our “leisure time,” we’re trying to do 25 things at once.  It seems every time a stop light turns red, the driver in front of me (assuming he or she is one of the 5% of those out there NOT on a cell phone while driving) almost always seems to find a need to go into the glove compartment, or search for something under the seat.  Why? Could it be that we’re at a point that we just can’t slow down?  We feel guilty if we’re not in motion at all times? We are in a constant state of information overload.  Although I’m not exactly a Neo-Luddite, I will argue that, occasionally, we’ve put the cart before the horse when it comes to our technology.  I for one, find myself succumbing to the irresistible allure of the blinking red light…every…single…time an e-mail or text comes in to my Crackberry. 

I’ll spare you my thoughts on multi-tasking as a way of life (another blog for another day).  But I think/hope I’ve set the background for the growing adoption of social media, and what it means for all marketing and public relations channels.

I’ll admit that Twitter, in many ways, feeds this obsession with technology and a feeling of being constantly connected.  But it also forces the Tweeter to get to the point.  There’s no room for pitch.  You can’t beat around the bush.  Post a link.  Add a video.  Make your point.  And make it interesting, or you won’t have many followers (except, maybe, the single name spam-artists seeking to link back to some rather unsavory Web sites.)

And that’s part of a greater trend in effective advertising and marketing.  Even if you’re going old-school with a multi-thousand mail drop, sending an e-mail to the under 10% who may receive it, or spending a gazillion dollars on an ad campaign, you will be wasting your time …well, if your ad is wasting the reader’s or viewer’s time.  Even if you don’t Tweet, don’t care to Tweet and don’t ever plan to Tweet, you can learn a lot from what Twitter (and its wide adoption) tells us about us as a society.  We want constant and updated information.  We want it now.  We want it quick and easy.  And we want it to be about us, or at least, to be interesting to us.

Is that a good thing?  Probably not.  But that’s a socio-philosophical debate for another day.  As a marketing/PR guy, I’m getting the hint.  Even if you’re not using Twitter, ya’ better learn how to Tweet no matter how you try to reach your customers.