At Christmas along with "Presentation Zen" and Andy Clarke's "Transcending CSS" book I got Seth Godin's "Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us". Now 'Tribes' sets out at full pace to sway you to the idea that there are tribes out there that are succeeding due to a leader etc. If you compare this to twitter you start seeing the full potential of twitter. Godin's idea of tribe power fits perfectly with twitter. I don't really agree with Godin's idea of not asking permission. His principal of asking for forgiveness later, just doesn't work for me, but there are some interesting points and examples. The passion of a leader plus the efficiency of twitter for communicating to the 'tribe' and you have a powerful combination that can be really successful.
Funnily enough this idea comes across in the article written by David Pogue about Twitter. The article is nice starting point for people that have not used twitter before. I only signed up recently although had used it on a friends blackberry to ask his followers a question. But there were things I learned about this now trendy system called twitter, notably that it is just dead simple.
If you have a passion and need to communicate with your followers quickly and efficiently, then twitter may well be your answer. Check out the 'tribes' approach while you're at it...
Note: interesting article here about how twitter seems to be past the days of really needing to find a business model !