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Twitter – Top 10 Uses for Business

By Hubert Hopkins on December 16th, 2009

twitter_logoOne of our most frequently asked questions recently is “How can twitter help me or my business?”. I hope there are some uses in these lists for you and your business to take advantage of Twitter’s real time, one-way mini-blogging.

Twitter for Business:

  1. SEO- Search Engine Optimization – Google actually picks up these tweets and displays them in their search results. They won’t be long-lasting like your home page rankings, but they can be effective for highlighting a new product, new webpage, or your latest blog entry
  2. Reputation monitoring and tracking your competition – check out http://monitter.com/ for tracking what people are saying about your business or any other keyword of interest like your competition
  3. Opportunity to solve a customer problem – Comcast solves thousands of complaints per day by monitoring Twitter when a customer tweets something bad about their service
  4. Specials of the day or week – Restaurants are getting great responses by tweeting their daily specials or coupons for something free
  5. Tips for using your products or services – help your customers out with the “inside tips” for using your products or services and at the same time let them know all the other things you can offer
  6. Contest or new product promotions – Contests are a great interaction on the Internet to attract attention.  The right contest can go viral and create tremendous interest in your company
  7. Service openings (as for a dentist that has a cancellation) – This is a great way to fill those last minute openings, combine the twitter feed with a 10% discount and you may never have another hole in your daily schedule
  8. Emergency notifications to employees and customers – Companies are always looking for ways to contact employees in emergencies that require plant closings or other actions.  Twitter can provide one way to help this, not the “only” way, but one path
  9. Networking for new contacts – At its core, Twitter is another way to network with short interactions, getting to know each other, liking each other, and gaining trust if it’s done well
  10. Get feedback – if you need feedback just tweet about it asking what people think. Once you have a follower base, this can be a valuable source of business decision making information

If you want more ideas, check this out for 50 Ideas for Using Twitter for Business by Chris Brogan:  http://www.chrisbrogan.com/50-ideas-on-using-twitter-for-business/

If you’d like help with your social marketing campaign, contact us.

Ways that Twitter works for Individuals

  1. Family touches if long distance – what better way to easily keep track of what your college student is doing every day when away on a three week international trip
  2. Follow favorite celebrity – even I have a couple of celebrities I want to know on a more personal level. Following them on Twitter is an easy way to know them more personally
  3. News – get news even before it’s “right off the press”.  Now we get it as it’s happening real time
  4. Broadcast news when it happens to you – Be a news maker
  5. Specials while shopping – have the feeds of your favorite stores to check just before a shopping trip, print Twitter coupons, know the last minute deals out there
  6. Entertainment – What band’s playing tonight at your favorite spot or what new recipe is your favorite chef working on tonight
  7. Become a Guru in a work or hobby niche – personal branding by being an expert at something you love. Share what you know in little bite size pieces and grow followers
  8. People watching– follow what’s happening in your town, or at a large sporting event, it can be as entertaining as being there in person
  9. Emergency contact – Let all your followers know when you are in jail in Bali, hoping someone will help you get out. Don’t laugh, this has happened in real life
  10. Finding a job – constantly update your twitter followers with your every step in job hunting and let them lend you a hand, it’s all about networking

Twitter for Work Groups

  1. Keep notes – Build your meeting minutes, phone call notes, etc. by tweeting as you go through your day
  2. Daily log of work accomplished – Just tweet when you finish a task and everyone is up to date instantly
  3. Where is everyone – let it take the place of the big white board with IN/OUT by each person’s name
  4. Document why you did something – use it for sharing knowledge and accelerating your group’s growth
  5. Polling your network for help on a hard issue – Just tweet out your problem and see who has already solved it before
  6. Sharing links of interest as you find them – real time sharing of great information from the web, again accelerating the learning for the group
  7. Influence a decision – good old fashion working in your group to get your input on an important decision
  8. Share your funny stories – use Twitter to share the funny ups and downs that happen to you during the day, add a little humor to your work day
  9. Motivation – send little “motivational tweets” to your work team members urging them on to greatness. A little encouragement to keep spirits up is always helpful
  10. Streamline your inboxes – If you used all 9 above, there would be less email and less clutter elsewhere on your desk and desktop

For help on grouping your twitter feeds, http://blog.atebits.com/2009/02/twitter-groups/