07/ 30/ 2008
by Maggie Flynn
You might have heard some of your colleagues and friends talking about Twitter, the latest social networking site that keeps your contacts updated frequently on your whereabouts and activities. But did you know that Twitter could potentially provide you with a fresh new marketing strategy? Read on to find out how Twitter could benefit your business.
Like MySpace and Facebook, Twitter is a Web-based community that connects you with other users and gives you a personal page you can use to promote your personal or business interests. However, while MySpace and Facebook are intended as forums to create profiles detailing your interests and a place to send friends personal messages, the function of Twitter is very streamlined: Posts are based around the question "What are you doing?" and are limited to 140 characters.
Additionally, members of your network signed up to receive text messages from Twitter can receive your updates on their cell phones. Users can also sign up to receive updates through an IM account.
So how can this benefit your business? If your customers are part of the Twitter community and link up with you, there are several ways you can use Twitter to promote yourself. Let's say you post the message "I'm marking sales items down 30 percent" to your page. While you might send the customers on your e-mail list a similar message about your current sale, those on Twitter can receive the message immediately. And if they're somewhere near your shop or out running errands, they might decide to stop in and get first pick on those sale items.
Many users employ Twitter to let people in their network know their whereabouts and invite them to join; using Twitter in this way could also be beneficial to your business. For example, if you run a wine shop and are going to a tasting, the customers and friends in your network may be interested in meeting you there. This would allow you to spend time with your customers in a casual environment and perhaps glean their reactions to new brands.
Despite these potential business uses, Twitter is not for everyone. Most people aren't using this site for professional purposes, so you'll receive updates about what your contacts had for lunch or what they're watching on television. While the site itself doesn't charge for text messages, standard phone service fees apply. So if you don't have a bundled text message plan, your Twitter habit could quickly become expensive. You do, however, have the option of turning off incoming text messages from Twitter at any time, and need not use the texting service at all.
Because Twitter is relatively new, its novelty factor hasn't worn off for users yet. That's good news, as your contacts will likely pay more attention to your "tweets" than they will the messages from your competitors clogging their e-mail in boxes. However, you might find that none of the clients on your e-mail list have even heard of Twitter, much less use the service. It may come down to how many people you can convince to sign up and join your network to make Twitter worth your time and effort.
If you decide to use Twitter, you can sign up for a free account at twitter.com. Your username will serve as your URL on the site. For example, Jane Doe's page might be twitter.com/jdoe123. Once you have that, you can start posting updates, making them available to the public or just the people in your network. To make "friends" on Twitter, you can send e-mail invitations and find out which of the people you know are already on the site through your e-mail address book.
When you use the service, keep your posts conversational and don't overdo it. (There's no need to tell people you're still marking down sale items after your first post.) If you've found that keeping up a blog on your Web site or sending e-mail newsletters is something you'd like to do in theory, but don't have the time to get around to it, Twitter might just be the technology you've been waiting for.
