Employees tweet at work just as they use instant messaging services assuming your company doesn’t have a policy prohibiting them said usage. So here is my views on how to harness Twitter in the workplace:

Define a strategy for your company, just as we have done! I believe transparency is important so here are excerpts from the concepts behind the strategy we are implementing at Juxt Interactive along with explanations of the driving factors behind our approach.

• Have each and every individual that wants to use twitter at work to benefit the company determine their voice. How will they position their messaging and how can that help your company? If you follow me you’ll notice at least 80% of what I say is focused towards business. tasks I’m currently working on, industry news, and research & development.
• Have more seasoned users mentor new users. Technology is usually inherently confusing and twitter is no exception to the rule.
• Adjust your email footer to include a link to follow you on twitter, this is simple and a great way to gain followers.
• Be aware that your clients, prospects, vendors, and staff follow you, if you send messages that are offensive to any of these groups, you probably shouldn’t be part of your company’s twitter team.
• The time of your tweets matter. If you have an important message sending it at 10pm on a Friday night may go unnoticed by many [at least those users who stream in real-time.] with the exclusion of people in different time zones.
• We live in a global economy, if you don’t already do business internationally be prepared to do so, don’t limit yourself to local discussions.
• Retweeting is imperative, but don’t use your companies Twitter account as a straight unidirectional promotional channel.  Have employees retweet as necessary at different intervals so your message is seen by different groups of people at different moments in time.
• Deliver content that is relevant to the audience that you wish to target.
• Make sure your voice is authentic as is your message.
• Engage others in your field in communication.
• Understand Twitter is a push/pull medium – don’t just speak; ask, listen, react.
• People are as smart as you give them credit, don’t just promote your company. Good rule of thumb: think of your audience as your wife, or husband. Don’t be condescending, be respectful.
• Watch the length of your tweet, 140 characters is obviously short.  Use it wisely.  If you @reply to many users in a tweet it becomes an issue when retweeting.
• Lastly, Twitter is dynamic — always changing.  Understand this and embrace this.  Change the structure of your tweets, the sequencing the people you reply too, the tags, etc.

Again, we’ll see over time if this strategy proves to be sucessful.  Currently this is just aggregated research and an attempt at creating a strategy to streamline and organize communication over this specific medium.