How Can Twitter Help My Business?
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How Can Twitter Help My Business?
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Twitter, a microblogging service and social
networking tool located online at www.twitter.com, is currently taking the World Wide Web by storm.
Accessible via the Web or the latest generation of smart cell phones and PDAs, Twitter stands for "Typing What I'm Thinking to Everyone Reading." The service allows its users to type quick entries of 140
characters or less that are updated in real time. These entries, called "Tweets" are visible online
immediately.
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A Tweeter's audience consists of "followers,"
other Twitter users who have subscribed in order to receive updates. These updates show up on that
Twitter user's homepage as they are added. Many popular Tweeters, including celebrities, news
services like CNN, and high-profile bloggers in a number
of arenas, from Tech to Entertainment to
Politics, have thousands or tens of thousands of followers being updated on every single Tweet.
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While Twitter began as a purely social tool,
allowing friends to follow each other online and know what was going on in each other's lives, as soon as
it began gaining traction in the world of the social Web, businesses began to take advantage of Twitter as
well. From running advertisements and promotions on
new products or deals to reputation management
and responding to customer queries, online businesses use Twitter for a number of purposes. Figuring
out how you might want to use Twitter for your business is important before registering an account.
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Should I Use Twitter for My Business?
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There is no hard and fast answer as to whether
or not a business should be on Twitter. Setting up a Twitter account "just to be on it" is not
useful. A business that has a Twitter account but does not regularly update with information regarding the
business itself, products or services the business offers,
or related industry news, could be viewed as a
spammer. If you are going to be on Twitter, it is important to update regularly.
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If you have the time to devote to Twitter,
though, it can be a very useful tool. One of the innovations of Twitter is its real-time search function, which
allows for keyword searches that bring the most recent updates immediately. This means that a business
can search its company name, brand, products, or
industry keywords and immediately find out what
people are saying, right now, about their business. If you stay on top of what people are saying about
your business, Twitter is a great way to respond directly to demand, questions, and complaints.
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In addition, offering content is a key aspect to
maintaining a Twitter presence. If your company has a blog, posting links to new and updated articles
on Twitter can be a great way to bring in readership, and, possibly, leads. In the new World Wide Web,
social media and networking are changing the way
people do business. Providing good content and
information that people who are regarded as authorities-be they search engines, high-profile
bloggers, or Tweeters with a large number of followers-regard as useful is the key to
maximizing your business' impact on the social web, be it on Facebook, Digg, or Twitter.
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Once you have decided how you might best utilize
Twitter to help your business (publishing industry news or helpful content, answering questions
about products/services, etc.) you are ready to begin.
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To take advantage of Twitter, a business must
have a profile. There is a link to join from Twitter's homepage, or you can skip straight to https://twitter.com/signup. Businesses or individuals are required to provide the following:
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Full Name (Company Name if not an Individual)
Username (Should be related to Company Name)
Password
Valid Email Address
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Once this information is validated, you will be
taken to a page to fill out your profile. There, you can add a location, a URL (should link to your
business' current website, or, even more specifically, a company blog), and a Bio (should contain company
information). Once the profile is set up, it is time to begin Tweeting, as well as following other
Tweeters.
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Once your company's Twitter profile is set up and
you have Tweeted a few times, it is a good time to begin building an audience of followers. This
should be done both on Twitter by searching for company-related keywords and following people who are
Tweeting about your business or industry and off.
Gaining an audience of followers on Twitter from
your current and potential client base can be done ina number of ways:
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Link to your company's Twitter in all email
Link to sign-up landing page from Twitter
account
Use Twitter content in email newsletters
Post links from newsletter articles on Twitter
Present instructions for signing up for Twitter
to your customers
Use Twitter to talk about recent press releases,
forum posts, case studies, blog entries, etc.
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Services like Twilert (www.twilert.com) and EasyTweets
(www.easytweets.com) allow you to track searches of your name, brand, products, relevant
keywords and more. These can help you track the buzz surrounding your brand. The result is the
ability to respond to current and potential clients in real time while continuing to build your base of
followers.
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Social Media Relations: It's Not Media Relations
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In the past, getting news and new information
about your brand out meant buying, begging, and bugging (advertising, press releases/public relations,
selling). In the world of the Social Web, new rules apply. Cache comes not from advertising dollars, but
from providing quality information; linking to interesting content that is helpful to a wide readership
will gain you more on Twitter than constant advertising prods. If you provide interesting content, other
users will Re-Tweet (RT) your posts, which will garner new readership and followers.
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When using social media, certain guidelines
should be followed:
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-Play nice: what you publish on the Web, even
though it can be deleted from Twitter, will still be archived somewhere.
Maintaining a good
professional reputation as a friendly source for information is important, negativity doesn't go
far on Twitter
or in social media in general.
-Encourage sharing: provide free information and
encourage others to share it; this will engage new potential customers by
harnessing the power
of bloggers with high readership and Tweeters with a large number of followers.
-Avoid coercion: do not trick potential
customers.
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-Lose control: once the information you have
published is out there, let people do with it what they will.
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In many ways, using the Social Web is based on
common sense. Once you have learned the particulars of a certain tool, like Twitter, it becomes fairly
intuitive. Be friendly, be helpful, share information, and build a good reputation, and current and potential
customers will know they can trust you. This is truly how to use Twitter for the benefit of your
business.
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getFound on Google, Yahoo, Bing, Twitter, Facebook, Google Buzz, Wordpress Blog, Craigslist and Yelp.
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