Unless you live in a web-less world, you’ve probably heard of Twitter by now. If not, I suggest you try out a great new search tool I’ve found called Google.
Twitter is a blogging platform designed around conversation, rather than information. They accomplish the give and take of conversation by restricting everyone to one short statement at a time. As a result, Twitter is a microcosm of quips, a flurry of microblogs. Mass texting on steroids. Users call it ‘tweeting’.
Twitter defines itself as a communication platform, stating on their home page:
“Twitter is a service for friends, family, and co-workers to communicate and stay connected through the exchange of quick, frequent answers to one simple question: What are you doing?”
According to that repository of public knowledge that is Wikipedia;
“Twitter is a free social networking and micro-blogging service that allows users to send updates (otherwise known as tweets) which are text-based posts, ranging up to 140 characters long.”
What makes Twitter a powerful communication tool is the ability to send and receive updates via your web browser, email, instant messaging or your cell phone. No matter where you are, you can quickly add updates to your Twitter profile for others to follow.
For example, when Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook was interviewed at a recent media industry conference, Twitter was alive with audience members commenting, complaining, and heckling the interviewer – during the interview. This is real time mass communication at its finest.
How does this affect your business?
At first, many people just don’t get Twitter, and wonder if there’s really any point to it. This is becoming less of a question as individuals and businesses are finding ways to effectively use Twitter to add value to their online business.
Think of it this way; the more contact you have with potential customers, the more likely they will buy from you. Twitter is an excellent tool for creating “top of mind awareness”. By effectively using Twitter to promote your ideas, share knowledge and even advertise sales and other ecommerce offers, you become a source of quick information that your followers want to read.
Here are just a few of the benefits of tweeting on Twitter:
- It reminds people that you exist, keeping you on their radar and part of their decision making process.
- It shows people you have something worthwhile to share.
- It allows you to inform others of new offers, sales and breaking news immediately.
- It allows you to communicate more often.
- It allows you to form more relationships casually, since tweets are short and readable in one glance.
- Twitter pages get indexed by search engines and may show up for search inquiries when your website may not.
- You can ask for referrals, suggestions, feedback and help, and people will respond.
With so much marketing hype on the web, people are increasingly looking for companies they can trust. You can build this trust in your brand with prospects by allowing them to get to know you, and by providing them with information that they’re truly interested in. Twitter allows you to do just that, in a matter of seconds.
Not sure this can be done? Big name companies using Twitter to promote their website and brand include Amazon, Woot, H & R Block, and Zappos, among others.
Check back next week for 4 Rules of Tweeting – Making Twitter Work for Your Business.
Good tips on the value of using Twitter to promote your website. One key point that I would stress is the need to engage in conversation. And if you don’t engage in conversation, you won’t get many followers and thus, all of the above benefits of promoting your website cannot be achieved.
I wrote a recent blog post about best twitter practices for business, http://twittermaven.blogspot.com/2008/07/these-companies-get-it.html