O’Reilly Media is out with a new report on Twitter. They’ve got some comments about its political implications as well (something we’ve looked at a great deal here):

It would be a stretch to say that Twitter helped Obama win the presidency. But there’s no question that the messaging service played an important role in this year’s elections. To wit:

• Obama signed up early and has by far the most followers of anyone on Twitter. He and his campaign sent messages regularly from the trail.
• Twitter Vote Report, created by users building on Twitter’s API, gave voters a way to share information about the state of polling in their precincts and to view aggregated national reports.
• Twitter’s own Election 2008 site provided a live window into people’s thoughts and feelings about the candidates and issues over the last couple of months.

Taken together, these uses of Twitter reveal that the platform is shifting from a geek-niche toy to a significant new communications channel. If you’re wondering what it will look by the 2012 elections, check out “Twitter and the Micro-Messaging Revolution: Communication, Connections, and Immediacy–140 Characters at a Time,” released this morning. In the report, my co-authors and I take a deep look at the messaging service, its ecosystem and its implications. We include exclusive information and insights from the Twitter team, plus best practices for companies looking to use Twitter and other micro-messaging services.