I’m a hockey fan (warning: understatement). So when my team was prematurely bounced out of the playoffs (no comments from Boston fans), I dramatically downgraded my cable subscription. And when this weekend’s NHL draft came along, I was left hearing a lot of gossip and speculation with nothing to tune into but local news and my son’s cartoons.

Enter my favorite real-time medium. After spending just a few minutes customizing my TweetDeck column, I suddenly had news, rumor and truly colorful commentary streaming to my phone, laptop and tablet faster than I could refresh. Following a collection of journalists, die-hard hockey bloggers and official NHL Twitter accounts, I got more than my fill of up and coming prospects and predictions for next season. I, of course, also didn’t hesitate to hashtag my own two cents. Residually, with 85 days to go before the preseason begins, I now have a running stream of puck consciousness to tide me over.

So, aside from an excuse to write about hockey on this Monday in late June, what does this mean for the B2B world? We’ve seen Twitter used as a broadcast medium so many times; companies push out their news headlines and relegate the powerful microblogger to little more than a buzz-word-backed RSS service. Calling a message a tweet doesn’t mean you are really using Twitter. To get the most of the medium, leverage both lanes of the two-way street. Follow interesting people and stay current on the conversations in the channel. The value in the medium is its duality as a platform that informs a niche audience and simultaneously educates the would-be broadcaster.

Let’s Go Pens.