What Is This Twitter You Speak Of?

So what is Twitter and how can it be of benefit to you or your business? Twitter is a free online micro-blogging application which gives you the ability to send out short messages (up to 140 characters) called “tweets” to people who are following you on Twitter. You can send tweets either through your computer or by using your cell phone via a text message. These tweets/messages can be about anything you want and they can include links, as well. Making Twitter even more useful is the ability to send a direct message to someone you are following (this is done by entering @username at the beginning of your message) or replying to someone’s tweet with your own. You would be surprised how common it is to reply to someone’s message then to have someone who is either following you or the person you sent the reply to reply to your initial message and so on.

People can follow you and your tweets by first signing-up for their own free Twitter account at the Twitter site then adding you to their list of people they are following. Once you have created your account, you can either check your Twitter page (your own personal page which appears after you sign-in at the Twitter home page) for any of your friend’s new messages or you can send out your own. But it is much easier, in my opinion, to use one of the many online or desktop applications which give you the ability to do all of this and more.

Twitter As A Communication Tool

Twitter is a quick and easy way to communicate with family, friends, business associates, and also within a company setting. Being an online service, Twitter is available to anyone with online access. All you have to do is login to your account through any number of third-party applications developed for Twitter or through the Twitter site and you are ready to go. Within a company setting, employees could have a Twitter account created for them with the option to have their messages protected. This means only people they (or you or the person in charge of creating the Twitter accounts) approve will be able to send and receive messages from them. The same thing could be done using an instant message program but with Twitter, there would be no software to install and it would be accessible from anywhere with an online connection. Additionally, the person who is in charge of the Twitter accounts will have the power to control who is and who isn’t part of this private Twitter network.

Even though there are tons of online communication applications available, Twitter can also be used as a way for people who are collaborating on a project to stay in touch with one another regardless of where they are. And depending on which third-party application they are using to Twitter with, these conversations can be saved for future reference. There are even some third-party apps which you can use to send files up to 10MB to anyone you are following as long as they are using the same application, that is. Still, a handy feature to have and one which may become a feature of Twitter if there’s a big enough demand for it.

Marketing With Twitter

Here in lies the great thing about Twitter from a business perspective: the marketing potential it offers users. Sure, it is great to send messages and chat using Twitter, but it can also be a great marketing tool if used correctly. Have some breaking news you want to get out quickly? Send it out as a Tweet. Made an important update to your blog or web site? Let people know about it instantly with a Tweet. Want to promote your project, book, movie, whatever by giving away a free download or preview? Send out a Tweet with a URL to the free download. Only want to market something to certain individuals you are following? Simply enter their username preceded by the “@” and you are set.

Another simple marketing tool available with Twitter is the ability to befriend people who are following someone you already follow. While this practice could backfire on you if you begin to add everyone you find following someone you are following, be picky and just befriend those who either share similar tastes that you do or work in the same field as you or already follow many of the same people you do. Otherwise, you could come off as a spammer which will be a hard image to shake.

Twitter Now And Beyond

Twitter represents a fundamental change in the way people communicate online. There have always been instant messengers and they have their place and purpose but they don’t offer the one thing which sets Twitter apart and that is the ability to instantly communicate with either a couple of people or potentially thousands without the need for proprietary software. No need to download this piece of software in order to communicate with this person or that organization.

Much like how blogging has become a staple of today’s society, Twitter and “twittering” is on the same path to becoming ingrained in today’s culture despite only being around for less than two years. So simple in its execution, powerful in the marketing opportunities it offers, and ease of use, Twitter will be one of the top web technologies to gain worldwide prominence in 2008.



By: Geek Entrepreneur

One of my favorite Twitter marketing tools is TweetDeck. (http://tweetdeck.com/beta/) It’s a better way to use Twitter than Twitter itself! If you are using Twitter in your marketing, TweetDeck allows you to view all your relevant info in one simple console. It’s a free download, and currently considered beta software, but I haven’t had any technical problems with it.

I use four columns on my TweetDeck application: All Friends, Replies, Direct Messages, and Search.

All Friends. This column displays all of your friends tweets, in real time. I usually open TweetDeck once or twice a day, so the first thing I do is scan all my friends Tweets, looking for anything interesting, funny, or noteworthy in any way. I have found a lot of great tips, websites, quotes, and other ideas just through scanning this column. If I find something I really like I will re-tweet it. TweetDeck makes it easy, all I have to do is hover my mouse over their profile pic, and it gives me the option of reply, re-tweet, direct message, or favorite their Tweet.

Replies. This columns displays all replies to me personally, as well as any re-tweets. I always Direct Message those that re-tweet my stuff, thanking them for the re-tweet. I don’t usually reply, as that would appear in my Twitter stream, and I have my personal Twitter presence linked to my Facebook profile, so I don’t want to “clutter up” facebook with a ton of personal back and forth Tweets.

Direct Messages. Let’s face it, most of these are automated spam. I ignore those. But I do scroll through to find the “real” DM’s, and respond to those. Some people think Twitter is an online version of Instant messaging. It’s not. You don’t have to respond instantly to everything that’s sent to you. Don’t feel bad about responding to messages a few hours, or even days old. Twitter is a micro-blog, nobody should expect instant communication back.

Search. In this column I see results for any key term I’m interested in. I currently have the name of my company. If one of our affiliates is sending out a Tweet about it, I will often re-tweet their message, exposing their link to all of my followers, and letting them know I appreciate their referrals. Other mentions include simple things like, “Listening to a training by…” and I respond to those too. Any publicity is good publicity, so I try to thank anybody who’s putting in a good word for what we’re doing.

The key is to be consistent, and to use TweetDeck as a part of your overall Twitter strategy, helping you drive traffic, build relationships, and stay in touch with prospects and clients.



By: Dave Sherwin

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