Why should my business be on Twitter?
Twitter! Are you Twittering? Have you Twittered? All I hear nowadays is Twitter this and Twitter that! Why should I care about Twitter? Is there a business use for it? Is it something I should be doing? Well, that depends. This is really about my two cents.
What is Twitter anyway? Wikipedia defines Twitter as follows:
Twitter is a social networking and micro-blogging service that allows its users to send and read other users’ updates (known as tweets), which are text-based posts of up to 140 characters in length. Updates are displayed on the user’s profile page and delivered to other users who have signed up to receive them. Senders can restrict delivery to those in their circle of friends (delivery to everyone being the default). Users can send and receive updates via the Twitter website, SMS, RSS (receive only), or through applications such as Tweetie, Twitterrific, and Feedalizr. The service is free to use over the web, but using SMS may incur phone services provider fees.
So, a few months ago I finally decided to see what all this hype was about and signed up for a Twitter account. I added my sister-in-law as my first person that I “followed”. Following means you see this persons entries on your Twitter page when they post an update. So I added her, and then it asked to search my address book to see if I could find more friends to follow. So then I got 6 or 8 more hits from that. And I was content for while with my setup.
One night though, I was a bit bored and I could not sleep. So I started looking at my twitter profile to see who was doing what on Twitter. Then here is where I started down the slippery slope of addiction – I started looking at the profiles of the people who were following me. Then on their profiles, I see people I would like to follow, so I add them. I mean my “friends” and I have things I common right? So logic would say that they may follow people I might be interested in following, that like things that I like. I have a friend who is a Microsoft MVP, and he went to the Microsoft MVP Summit, so he got a bunch of contacts within Microsoft, and other MVP’s following him. So I started to follow them too. And we also have friends in common, whom I did not find on Twitter, but he did so I added them too. Did you know Bill Gates has a twitter account? I’m following Bill Gates on Twitter! So now, I’ve gone from following maybe 8 people to at last count 38 or so? And I’m sure it will just keep growing. I follow all the members of my favorite band now too. I follow multiple Microsoft MVP’s too. So I think it’s pretty neat, and I think I’m starting to get pulled in now (OK, I’m FULLY addicted).
So how can I use Twitter in my business? Here is an example I can think of, and I’m not really even that experienced at all the ins-and-outs of Twitter. Lets say you run a restaurant. You have a Twitter profile for the Restaurant. You encourage your patrons to follow you on Twitter. So lets say you have 400 patrons following you on Twitter. Any time you want, you could send a Tweet that says today’s special? Or a new menu offering? Just like that 400 people now know about your special. You have 400 people thinking about the last time they ate at your restaurant, maybe they start craving your awesome dessert now. And they end up visiting just to have some of that great dessert. Even though they did not care about the special, you still put a bug in their head. All that cost you was the time it takes to sign up and type a 140 character message. Not too bad.
In our business, I could see it being a way to notify clients of an outage, or some other technical issue. Or even keeping them updated on new offerings we have. Or how about new clients that we sign up? Kinda like, “Hey we just signed up Dr. Joe Blow’s office for an agreement. Congratulations Dr. Joe!”. Now you have clients, that might know Dr. Joe, and it could start somebody else talking to Dr. Joe next time they see him. “Hey we use Orange Technology too!” and so on… In my opinion, anytime you have clients talking about your company with one another or their friends, this is a good thing.
So now Orange Technology Management will be on Twitter. Because what’s the point of talking about all this, if I don’t at least try to implement some of the things I am talking about? So stay tuned, and we will see how WE use Twitter. In the meantime, go to www.Twitter.com to sign up, and get started. Orange Technology Management’s Twitter name is MyOrangeIT.
Great article, thanks for contributing!
Thanks!
Twitter serves as an ideal form of customer service for company “brands.” Some strong ones are JetBlue, Comcast (believe it or not) and Dunkin Donuts. They use Twitter as a way to share information as well as staying in touch with their customer’s and potential customers. I’ve also seen company spokepersons launch their own Twitter names in order to connect with parters, prospects, and to leverage their expertise as industry thought leadership.
Twitter is a VERY powerful tool if used correctly. Integrating it into your online marketing and overall social media strategy will yield further results!
One of the golden rules of social networking that most businesses miss out on is the strategic side. I look at social networking- twitter, facebook, etc.- as a normal networking “in person” function. Treat it much the same way. I would never go up to a person at a party and say, “Hi, I’m Unlimited Potential Marketing, buy my products!” Rather, I would care about the person with whom I’m speaking, and introduce myself as a person, not a business. Twitter should be used as a relationship builder, not a blatant advertisement. If you can use that principle, it’s amazing the number of people who start to follow you.
Hope this helps everyone succeed! http://www.twitter.com/braddohack
Shannon and bdohack both make great points, and yet even with all of this in mind I still struggle to determine what information to put out there to my Twitter followers. In some respects, I’m finding it almost as difficult as finding a niche for my blog. I guess the question I keep coming back to is: Why would someone want to follow me or read my blog when I don’t feel like I’m an expert at any one subject?
Alysh, as a professional writer, do you need to be an expert on any one subject? Perhaps you should be interviewing the subject matter experts and writing about them on your blog. In many cases, those that are technically proficient are not as adept at communicating their knowledge to others, especially to those outside their field. We’re looking for people who want to contribute to our site. Perhaps you could interview and write about local business people making use of social media in their personal and professional lives. This could potentially create some interest in your own blog. Just a thought.
Admin, Funny that you should say that. Before I even read your reply, I considered interviewing some of my Twitter followers on my blog in an effort to get to know them better and to see what is working for them in the social media realm. Thanks for the input!