How to Twitter for Better Business

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Just when you were done setting up your blog, branding your MySpace page, adding your info to LinkedIn, and setting up a Facebook account, the social net-world moves on to the the next new thing: microblogging. Microblogging is the fast-food version of online communication, where you can post your thoughts on the fly with quick and easy SMS or mobile apps. Leading the way is Twitter, a microblog application that allows you to post small (less than 140 character) messages from your computer or mobile phone.

You may wonder, “What’s the point? Why not just use a blog?” For business communication, there are definite advantages of using both.

With blogs, you can post in-depth articles, press releases, and other company news. The advantage Twitter presents over a blog, however, is in its ability to enable you to keep in touch with people quickly and simply. Twitter is the light and nimble hybrid of blogging and SMS.

Twitter makes the most of the idea that the Internet isn’t fenced off by the power button on your PC and an access point. With Twitter, you can access the Internet anywhere, taking it with you everywhere via mobile phone, tapping into it whenever you feel like it, and allowing it to ping you when you want it to. You can even use it to make instant updates to your blog, like we do in our blog sidebar at http://blog.aynbrand.com.

So how can you take advantage of Twitter? Here are the Top Five Twitter Uses for business:

1. Get solutions or recommendations. With Twitter, you can post – “tweet” – a question without spamming a number of people via email, SMS or IM. It’s a quick, non-intrusive way to get help or answers from a wide range of people (who are generally well-versed in all things internet, or why else would they be on Twitter?)
2. Network. By searching for industry keywords and paying attention to tweets, you can find people you’d like to follow on Twitter…whom you may eventually contact directly and/or invite to collaborate with.
3. Promote your blog. When you write something particularly newsworthy or interesting, you can post a tinyurl to it on Twitter and share it immediately with others. Alex King also provides a Wordpress plugin that integrates your Wordpress blog with your Twitter account.
4. Broadcast your business events and milestones. Let people know when your events are, what’s happening at them, and when your company reaches certain milestones. This is especially useful for conferences and trade shows: with Twitter, you can let people know what’s happening at the conference in real-time. For those who weren’t able to attend the conference, a particular seminar or a special event, they’ll appreciate knowing what’s going on – through Twitter, they can attend vicariously.
5. Learn what’s hot before it gets cold. Because of Twitter’s immediacy, you can learn about events or developments from other people or media (like CNN) as soon as it hits. For people whose business thrives on information, this is indispensable.

For businesses that rely heavily on constant communication and information, Twitter can play an important role in your marketing strategy. And honestly, who couldn’t use a little buzz and word of mouth that a few tweets could ignite?