Twitter has, for some considerable time, been the destination of choice for any up and coming writer who enjoys the challenge of a word count; a really tiny word count. At 140 characters, it's unlikely that the next great novel will be written using Twitter, but it has blossomed to be one of the number one sites for people to quickly update their followers of their comings and goings. It has turned out to be a wonderfully easy way to stay in touch with friends, family, and casual acquaintances in a way that the more verbose Google+ or Facebook haven't quite managed.

Twitter is also a fantastic way to alert you of issues. It's small, terse, and these days, clients are available for pretty much any device you care to mention. In many ways, Twitter is an excellent replacement for the old-fashioned pager system and has the advantage over SMSes of not needing a cellular connection to receive alerts. Many times, I've been stuck in buildings with no mobile phone signal...