Even if you haven't had this thought yourself, you've likely heard it expressed by someone else. What's the deal with Twitter? Who has time for it, and why should I care?While Twitter can surely be a place to post random answers to the question "What's happening?" (Note: When did the question change from"What are you doing?") Twitter can also be much more than that. Using Twitter it's possible to push meaningful information out to a large and/or targeted audience and to bring information in to your sphere of influence.
Savy companies have begun using Twitter to communicate important messages to customers and clients. According to USA Today Wells Fargo and Bank of America alert customers to changes in bank fees, product features, and customer service information. Individuals who follow the Tweets coming from these banks will have information deliberately and strategically pushed to them by company employees. It may be an advantage for the customer, but it is surely an advantage for the banks to be able to deliver such targeted information.
BusinessWeek points out how entrepreneurs are gathering information through Twitter that they can use to grow their businesses. By strategically searching the Twitter archives for people interested in a given product or service, it's possible to find new customers. In the BusinessWeek article, Wistia.com CEO Chris Savage found a buyer for his video sharing service by searching the phrase "video sharing."
Companies also monitor their brand and reputation on Twitter, keeping abreast of what people are saying. This kind of awareness makes it possible to do damage control or deliver alternative messaging if necessary. A quick search on a pharmaceutical of interest to me revealed a Tweet inquiring whether anyone had ever had an trouble with the drug. "I would really like to know if I should be concerned," he said. If I were the manufacturer of that drug, I would surely want to be a part of that conversation.
To search Twitter, simply go to the home page and enter your term or phrase in the search box. Use quotations to force phrase searching. You can also access the advanced search form through Search Twitter in order to search on words, phrases, people, places, dates, attitudes, and Tweets containing links.
The best overview I have seen on how to use Twitter strategically comes from this slide (posted by loichay on November 3, 2009 to a blog called KJB de signets graphiques.)
It addresses six business strategies (customer relations, crisis management, etc.) with suggestions on what topics to follow, how to create content addressing the business strategy, and how to engage others. For instance, the drug question posed above falls within the business strategy of Crisis Management. In this case the loichay slide points out that you can Follow your brand, products and relevant issues; Create directions to additional resources, updated information, and explanations; and Engage in answering questions, responding to comments, raising issues, and providing information.
With a few possible exceptions, we probably don't need to know who ate what for lunch, but we surely want to know what people are saying on topics of interest to us. We likely want to deliver a point of view or information related to a topic of interest to us. Twitter is a viable option for accomplishing both objectives.
