I just wrote an ITnews.com commentary on why I think Twitter is not a  flash in the pan and how companies are starting to embrace it. The piece was was hooked into an IDG News Service story that described Salesforce.com’s efforts to deploy Twitter as a tool to help customers.

A lot of folks say they think Twitter is stupid and I guess you have to be something of a news hound to go around sharing thoughts and links a couple of dozen times a day. I love it. In fact, I love the ability to measure my own audience which is still comparatively small at 300 in Twitter. Same with Facebook where I have 740 friends.  Growing those numbers is a hoot and I mean with people I know or with whom I share a common interest. Of course, the larger the group, the more diverse its composition. If you have a Twitter following of 200k, it’s pretty hard to know everyone on a first-name basis.

While many journalists still get queasy around web metrics, I like them because they give you the ability to measure and expand your reach as well as to de-emphasize what isn’t garnering eyeballs.

Anyhow, check out my Twitter commentary on ITnews.com and follow me on Twitter.