Barack Obama does it, Stephen Fry does it and Britney Spears does it too. Twitter is the latest Web 2.0 tool to get everybody talking - and people and programmes all over the BBC are at it as well.

For the uninitiated, Twitter is a very simple idea. You answer the question 'what are you doing?' in 140 letters or less, as often as you like. Other people can then sign up to 'follow' you and receive your updates. They can also reply to you, either in public by using their own update or in private via a Direct Message, a bit like an email.

Conversational

Twitter is 'a highly conversational, lightweight and highly interconnected blog,' explains Portfolio Executive (Social Media) Roo Reynolds (@rooreynolds), whose Twitter feed gets more followers and reaction than his conventional blog.

Generally people use it to gossip, gather information and share news - from the mundane (at time of writing Twitter user Stefnet is 'enjoying a cup of tea') to the significant (director of Global News Richard Sambrook looked to Twitter for UGC updates during the Mumbai attacks).

Twittering as the BBC

It's very easy writing short sentences about what you are doing as an individual, but writing them on behalf of the BBC is a different matter. The tone has to be informal and conversational because that's the nature of the site - but with the underlying authority and impartiality the audience expects from the BBC whatever platform it's on.

Getting that right is difficult, whoever you are, warns James Cridland (@jamescridland), Head of FM&T, A&M Interactive. 'If a presenter wants to use Twitter in a personal capacity, that would be brilliant - but I'd recommend them asking for guidance,' he says. 'While he's excellent at it now, Jonathan Ross' (@wossy) first faltering steps were a little like watching your dad dance at a disco...'

Public vs Private

Technology correspondent Rory Cellan Jones (@ruskin147), a veteran Tweeter, says he always has in mind that his Twitter updates are like updates on any other newswire. His tweets, as the updates are called, tend to be technology focused but he does also write about his private life - from casual snippets about walking the dog and cooking for the in-laws to a recent mention of his son getting a place at Oxford University.

'I'm self-aware,' he says,' I know Twitter is public. Writing about my son felt weird but I was just so proud! The borders between personal and professional break down with social media - you get to know people more. But people have always built relationships in business - I don't think it gets in the way.'

It's a delicate balance though, warns James Cridland. 'I'm fairly careful about what I publish online,' he says. 'There are some people out to 'get you' on the web, so it's important not to give them too much ammunition.'

Working Lunch

Also bear in mind the editorial responsibilities of your part of the BBC. For example, as a business programme, Working Lunch (whose Twitter feed I look after) has additional journalistic guidelines on top of standard BBC policy. We follow the financial journalism code laid out by the Financial Services Authority - so does our Twitter feed.

I post a variety of Working Lunch updates generally no more than 3 or 4 times a day but almost always at least once - sometimes links to things we're doing on the programme, sometimes I ask a question (it's an amazing way of getting a swift snapshot of opinion, and even finding contributors), sometimes it's just a small piece of gossip or chit chat, like the time I lost my voice half way through recording a voiceover for a film I was working on.

I reply to most of the messages that address Working Lunch - even if it's a case of 'thanks but no thanks'. I also check out the Twitter site of everyone who joins us and, if they're not direct marketing or spam (Twitter spam accounts are easy enough to spot and are usually swiftly taken down by the site itself), Working Lunch follows them back.

Followers

The most well-meaning Twitter feeds cause massive irritation when they fail to engage with their followers. Be warned though - it's time consuming. With a few hundred followers it's manageable for us at the moment... although that may change as the number of subscribers snowballs, as it has done this week.

I soft-launched Working Lunch (@workinglunch) on Twitter in October 2008 and acquired about 100 followers by mentioning it in our weekly email newsletter but never on the programme. Until last Tuesday, when we ran an item about Twitter on the show, looking at how businesses are using it to make money (one of our guests, a wine merchant, runs virtual wine tastings, in which Twitter folk post their tasting notes on the site after simultaneously sipping wherever they are). We also mentioned our own Twitter address - twitter.com/workinglunch - and the inbox instantly went mad with subscribers.

Fake Account

Hundreds of people signed up to follow us, started sending us replies and direct messages - and then a problem arose. Someone set up a fake Working Lunch account. After an hour (and a couple of very stern Direct Messages from me) the imposters owned up and deactivated their account.

The Twitter crowd was up in arms about the deceit. 'Why on earth would you want to pretend to be a TV programme?' asked one indignantly. Well quite, I thought... but the lesson I learned was about branding. I had registered 'workinglunch' but hadn't thought to register BBCworkinglunch. I was lucky - the fake Working Lunch didn't say anything editorially compromising - they were mainly re-tweeting the official updates. But don't make the same mistake.

Building Relationships

Overall so far, the experience has paid off though - it's brought us into immediate contact with a whole new section of the audience who probably wouldn't think to send us an email. We now refer to Twitter regularly on the programme and reference Twitter responses to topical finance issues as well as the traditional emailed opinions from viewers.

It's becoming a very useful tool for programme support - but the time consuming process of relationship-building online is essential to its success.

Interaction really is the golden rule. 'Follow users, be a good citizen, don't just broadcast,' concludes Jem Stone (@jemstone). 'Don't just use it for feeds for an event and then vanish. Twitter is for life, not just for Christmas.'

Zoe Kleinman is a Website Broadcast Journalist on Working Lunch. Follow Working Lunch updates on Twitter here.

To help you find programmes, no matter which station or channel they are broadcast on, we've started publishing schedules for all our genres (sport, music etc.). These views are being used as part of the BBC's Olympics coverage - specifically to drive the TV schedule and individual sport pages. But as you might be able to guess a little bit of URL hacking gives you more....

Meanwhile over on Bod's Blog, senior producer Andrew Bowden is rightly chuffed with his team's success in getting Freesat Sport Multiscreen onto the BBC red button:

I can now breathe a huge sigh of relief as the Freesat Sport Multiscreen arrives on the old BBC red button just in time for the Olympics! Press the old red button on any BBC channel, select Sport Multiscreen, wait a few seconds, and lo, you'll get up to six different sports to chose from at any one time... To say I'm glad to get this one out of the door, is an understatement...

Zoe Kleinman is Features Editor, Ariel.

Last night, the BBC Internet Blog took part in a seminar grandly titled 'blogs, the media and accountability'; BBC technology correspondent Rory Cellan-Jones chaired a panel consisting of BBC News Online Editor Steve Herrmann and our very own Internet Blog Editor Nick Reynolds, Channel 4 Viewers Editor Paula Carter and Guardian Readers Editor Siobhain Butterworth.

Of course the whole audience was blogging, twittring etc throughout: check out Matt Deegan's and Meeware's thoughts.

The panel all agreed that if there is one cardinal rule about keeping a blog, it is never ignore your comments page. Especially if it turns out that you've said something wrong.

'When you start a blog you are going to screw up,' said Nick Reynolds unequivocally. 'Apologise quickly, read your comments and follow the community of readers - they may be able to help you.'

Steve Herrmann, who contributes to the Editors Blog, admitted that as an editor 'it goes against your instinct to explain to the whole world why a story was wrong'. However, he also said the feedback he received after explaining the relaunch of News Online back in March was invaluable in ironing out creases to the new look site and explaining why things had changed; as well as apologising for those things that had gone awry in the process.

Rule 2 is to respond and acknowledge that help. Audience member and blogger Annie Mole said she was concerned that bloggers didn't get enough credit for stories that they feed to the BBC. Last week's news story about the doctored stills pictures of Iranian missile tests for example, came from a blog source which was not credited in the story itself, admitted Steve Herrmann. And yes, that needs to be addressed.

Slide courtesy of Paula Carter.

Rule 3 is to listen to what's being said about you, not just to you. Paula Carter has a Google Alert for all things Channel 4. 'lots of blogs are like personal diaries,' she said, 'and I don't think people intend for Channel 4 to be reading them.' Nick Reynolds agreed but gave the example of a personal blog he'd stumbled upon which criticised a regional programme about topless car washing (no, me neither). The blogger had emailed the BBC and had received a fairly unsatisfactory standard reply.

Nick sent the link to the regional editor, who wrote to her personally, explaining the choice of programme but admitting that, on balance, she was right. 'The odd thing about this further reply though is that I never contacted the BBC complaining about the first one,' she wrote. '...This is the power of the blog...'.

But is this micromanagement of a very small percentage of the vast audiences of organisations like the BBC the best use of time and money? The Guardian's Siobhain Butterworth, who handles 400 emails a week from individual readers (in 2007 the entire Press Complaints Commission received 5000) thinks so. 'it's important that news organisations are considered to be responsive,' she said.

'You've always got to ask, "is this good value for money?",' added Nick. 'But I think it is. They might be small groups but they're influential. You only need to get one good idea from someone and it's worthwhile. There's always someone out there who's cleverer than you.'

Zoe Kleinman is Features Editor, Ariel. Picture of Guardian lino print courtsey of dexter1uk on Flickr.