It’s difficult to resist the “too many twits make a twat” comment from Dave in a week when nearly every (I exaggerate) story on How-Do is concerned with the latest, and I suspect, short lived communication sensation, Twitter.

Quite what it is that makes people want to discuss the minutiae of their lives with complete strangers is something that mystifies me – and indeed we’re no exception to the rule of thumb which says we must all be Twits – or whatever.

Manchester Airport is the latest to get stuck in. As I write they tell me that they have Mango and FatFace stores now open in T1. This and the fact that the airport also currently has people apparently “flying away to escape the rain” are, I have to say, not true revelations for this time of year.

A man I don’t know called Gareth Holland confides that he is “sat in the executive lounge drinking Heineken” which is wonderful to know.

Reassuringly though, apparently new research has proved that almost half of the region’s leading brands and businesses “do not yet have a dedicated Twitter feed” which proves that the hard-earned reputation for Northern Good Sense still has some justification.

For those less sceptical than I am about the value of Twittering - I sort of think that if Stephen Fry is doing it I won’t – there are various excellent guides to how to make this work for you including Twitter for PR, Copyblogger and  and Chris Brogan.

I’m a complete gadget freak and a huge believer in new ways to get to our audiences – don’t get me started on how great the coming mobile phone transaction revolution is going to be - but, like every medium, content is king and I’m not going to trawl through the dross of people telling me they are in a bar to find out that an airport has people leaving in planes.

Just as it was fascinating, of course, to recently learn that Tangerine’s Vicki Lamb is “off to the gym” while her colleague Karen Adams is wondering what to make for tea but who really cares?

The most successful businessman I know well does not have an e-mail address and does all his communication by voice. When our offices get quiet I worry that people are hiding behind emails or Twittering when I’d rather they picked up the phone and talked to journalists.

John Williams is chairman of Mason Williams

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