The Business Side of Twitter
By Radha Khalsa
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Social channels on the Internet are becoming a useful part of Public Relations, Customer Service, and Internet Marketing for businesses. The Aberdeen Group of Boston says that even though ROI is hard to measure, 68% of companies they interviewed (chosen as “Best in Class”) plan to increase their marketing budget for social media.

Twitter is one of the better known social channels. It supports “micro-blogging”, the posting of messages less than 140 characters. Within these 140 characters, you can mention your product, post links to your website, offer contests, post breaking news and link to videos.

The Abrams Research Group asked 200 social media leaders which micro-blogging site they would recommend for their clients’ business. Twitter was seen as the most useful. Dell Computers sold over a million dollars through their DellOutpost postings on Twitter.

Use the search function of Twitter for research and important business intelligence. Looking at current search terms can give insight into breaking news and leading business indicators. Try searching Twitter to see if anyone is talking about your company at search.twitter.com.

Twitter can be an excellent platform for eliciting customer responses. Post a “tweet,” ask a question and be ready to listen to input. If customer service is required because of a complaint, be sure to move the conversation offline quickly. You can resolve the issue and ask the person to post a positive tweet about their experience.

Twitter is a useful resource for status messaging. A status message tells others in a group what you are doing. Wikipedia says, “Status messages may be displayed even if the person is present.” “They are often updated much more frequently than messages in answering machines, and thus may serve as a means of instant, limited "publication" or indirect communication.”

Event coordinators have found Twitter to be a useful forum for breaking news and have used Twitter to generate “buzz” prior to an event. It can also serve as a “back channel” for an event, or as a tool for “instant meet-ups.”

Setting up a user account at Twitter is easy. Make your user name either your company name, or an important keyword for your business. You can start with simple posts about what has your attention, make links to photos, post tips, and create news –what’s coming next. Be patient, Twitter can be buggy at times.

There are several plugins that have been developed for Twitter. Try downloading TweetDeck (tweetdeck.com) or Twhirl (twhirl.com). The TweetDeck screen shows the posts of the people you’re following, your direct messages, and Twitscoop –a list of trending topics and keywords. Twhirl has a screen that shows who’s talking about your company, plus posts and direct messages.

Use either Tweetdeck or Twhirl to comment on other people’s posts or “retweet” (RT) and redirect a post. Companies have found this to be an easy way to build community.

If your company is planning on engaging in social media, be sure to monitor who handles these social sites. Some businesses have put micro-blogging into the hands of people who don’t understand copyright infringement and aren’t trained in brand awareness.

You can have more then one person post “tweets.” Be sure that everyone who participates understands they can support your online goals. Construct an overall plan for handling your brand. For example, IBM saw the usefulness of allowing their employees to micro-blog. They created employee policies spelling out the rules for micro-blogging during work.

Once you are comfortable with posting to Twitter, be sure to write about it in your newsletter, and send it out to your email list. Ask your client list to follow you. Come up with promotional incentives in order to bring your customers onto Twitter. The more people following you, the more of an “authority” you become.

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