Do you want to get your business in on Twitter, but you're not sure where to start? Perhaps you're in public relations and marketing, but don't have the resources on staff to really learn all the nuance and detail involved in the community and development concerns with utilizing Twitter to its fullest. If you answered yes, then perhaps you're in need of the services offered at Cherp, a self described "Twitter Creative Agency."
Is this something that's really necessary, or even a viable business idea? That's the question Chris Brogan asks with full sincerity in his post about the company. I certainly don't blame him. To me, the idea that a firm has completely built itself around the idea of operating in the Twittersphere almost seems like a prank website. It isn't that it's impossible, it's simply a very bleeding edge idea to base a company around.
That's something I know quite a bit about. Contrary to the loud protestations of some, I've been an early adopter for a long time, and in the very first days of podcasting tried to build a growth-based business around the idea of podcast hosting. The time had not yet come, and would not come, for podcasting to be widely adopted enough by not just listeners and broadcasters but advertisers to build a growth-based business around the concept.
Similarly, it's obvious that there's something there with Twitter. There are very real ways to use the tool for a wide variety of professions in ways that can increase their bottom line in terms of marketing or simply increasing efficiency and access to information.
The problem is reliability. The system is continually in a state of flux and development, even by the company's own admission. Until things stabilize not just in terms of uptime but in terms of permanence of features, it's foolish to build any sort of long term company strategy that relies on the system's longevity. The landscape is already becoming littered by the carcasses of companies that have been rendered obsolete or non-functional by changes in the API at Twitter.
