There are a lot of ways you can be using Twitter for your business or organization. I would suggest you do ALL of these things in order to both get the most out of, and contribute the most to, the overall Twitter experience.
1. Inform – use Twitter to provide great information. This could be information about your company, products, services, industry, or any sort of related information. Be a productive member of your community and perhaps include information that has nothing to do with your business: traffic problems, weather-related problems, and more.
2. Connect – Make connections with others, based on location, interests, or any other criteria. The people you connect with become your network. They are clients, potential clients, or links to clients. Connecting means following, not just being followed.
3. Converse – Dialogue. Have conversations. Start talking to others and respond when they talk to you. Isn’t this what you do in meetings, or on the phone, or on the street?
4. Provide customer service – Take a cue from AT&T, Comcast, Home Depot, and others. When someone has a question or a problem, respond. Help them cut through the red tape. Solve problems publicly and you can’t lose.
5. Seek input and feedback – Ask questions. Find out what your fans, customers, and clients are thinking. If you are considering adding new products or services, or making changes, why not ask your community for their thoughts? This is an extremely valuable benefit of Twitter: instant, near real-time feedback.
6. Listen – Some times you just need to listen. Listen to what others are saying. Not just when you ask questions and are seeking feedback, but also when your community is talking without your prompting. Listening is a great way of discovering the pulse of your community and coming up with new ideas. This is also a great way of finding leads and closing the deal. If someone mentions an interest in your product category or industry, you can be there to offer your services.
7. Monitor your brand – This is an important part of listening. Create a search that follows any mention of your brand or company on Twitter. See what people are saying about you, or even IF they are talking about you. If they are, engage them.
8. Monitor the competition – Don’t just monitor your own brand, but see what your competition is doing, and what others are saying about your competition. This is all useful information.
9. Promote events – Twitter is a great way to spread the word about your own events, or any event you are interested in promoting.
10. Offer specials and deals – In addition to promoting events, why not offer deals or specials. You can link to the specials on your website or Facebook, or offer Twitter-only deals that people can mention to get discounts.
11. Link to other digital properties – Social Media does not exist in a vacuum. Make sure your Twitter content often points to your other online properties: Facebook, website, blog, LinkedIn, and more. Cross-pollination and multiple touch points are important.
12. An RSS feed for your blog – Every time you publish a blog post, Twitter should be one of the first sources for spreading the word and drawing readers to your blog.
13. Post pictures -Applications like Twitpic can be used to post pictures from wherever you happen to be. This is especially great if you are at some sort of industry event or an event sponsored by your company.
14. Geolocation – A lot of people use Foursquare, Gowalla, or other geolocation services. These were used really well at the recent South by Southwest conference, and can be effective when you’re trying to connect with others at a certain location.
That’s just a handful (or two) of ways businesses can use Twitter. What are some of the other ways you’ve used Twitter?
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These tips are fantastic. Thanks so much for the great post, I’ll be linking.
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