Twitter is about following tiny businesses, imho. Youtubers, independent journalists, local shops, local media, local politicians. It's RSS for z-list internet famous people.

Although it pretends that replies are equivalent to top-level tweets, they're not really. It's just that there's a reply thread attach to everything.

Basically, CNN will tell you what your head of state did. Your regional media will tell you what your legislative representative did if it was newsworthy.

Twitter lets you keep tabs on your city councilman.