To Tweet or Not to Tweet
Twitter is fast becoming 2009’s buzz social media site. Microblogging has taken over and people are already taking Twitter vacations. Nobody knows for sure how many Twitter users there are, but TechCrunch last year reported that there were likely in excess of 3 million messages per day. That’s a number that can only have gone up in the past 12 months. Twitter will only admit that in 2008 they experienced a tenfold increase in the number of users. The site is also gaining some attention as a possible new force in search, perhaps becoming another player that Google shouldn’t necessarily dismiss out of hand as substandard.
Naturally, the site is getting a lot of attention as the new social marketing tool for businesses large and small to add to their web 2.0 arsenal. But, how do you know if Twitter is right for you? What do you tweet about in only 140 characters or less? How can you spread the word about your Twitter tweeting?
Twitter is a good idea for any company willing to invest the time in creating tweets and forming active channels of communication with followers. It’s not just enough to simply promote your latest piece of news; you need to create an identity on there that represents your company and the people working there. You also need to be open to the idea of interacting with customers and prospective clients there. According to Laura Fitton speaking to CIO.com, Twitter should be a “place where you want to share common interests and ask insightful questions, and, ideally, read the interesting answers you get back.” Don’t just go at Twitter willy-nilly. Come up with a game plan will allow you to devote a good block of time to creating interesting tweets and interacting with your followers.
Although creating interesting tweets is essential to your ultimate Twitter success, how can you do so in “only” 140 characters? Twitter’s question is “what are you doing now?” Instead, answer questions like “what’s important to me now?” or “what has my attention?” These will help your tweeters to expand their thoughts and create content that’s interesting. Chris Brogan also advises to talk to others about their particular interests. This helps you to up the human factor, and better connect with others. You can also twitter about non-business topics as well, especially if they help you to create interesting, thought provoking, or humourous additions to your profile that make people want to follow your business. And of course, you can still use it to tweet some of your latest advances or important news.
Some other ideas: Follow others. Show that you’re active and interested in the Twitterverse. Often you may find like-minded or creative twitterers that have something you want to share. Retweeting is one of the fastest ways for someone’s 140-character information burst to take the network by storm. Everyone loves to share. Also, if possible, have more than one person at your company use Twitter to add some variety and show off the range of ideas and experiences contained withing your organization. Even better, personal accounts, like JohnATcompanyA, can also help you add that human aspect to your Twittering. Let your followers follow their favorite engineer or your crack sales team.
Lastly, how can you spread the word about your tweets? Promote it! Twitter gives short, easy to remember URLs (like twitter.com/ecwseo) that you can easily tell your customers, employees, friends, and family. If you send out a newsletter, announce your Twittering to the world there and provide a link for recipients to find you at. On your website or blog, make it very easy for people to move from your website to your Twitter account. Another suggestion, in your email signature provide a link to your account. If your company has any other social marketing profiles, like at Facebook or LinkedIn, add a link to Twitter to them. Promote it as just one more way your customers, clients, and connections can find you and be kept up to date on everything they need to know.
In short, Twitter is still young. If you don’t know how to use it right off the bat, don’t worry. You’re certainly not alone. But if you do take the leap into Twitter, just remember to spend some time focusing on the site so that you can learn its full value and potential for your business. For some examples of businesses Twittering and making a success of it, check out @wholefoods, @thehomedepot, and @comcastcares. Chris Brogan’s list of “50 Ideas on Using Twitter for Business” is also a great starter guide to finding your way around.
PS. Your friendly Ecreativeworks SEO team and blogger can also be found on Twitter. Follow us @ecwseo and @dana_hunter!
