Twitter is one of the fastest-growing social networking tools out there. It's a free online service that allows people to message one another. Users submit updates, "tweets", on themselves of 140 text-based characters or less. Then other Twitterers read those tweets and choose to "follow" what the person is up to. It's like a mix between blogging and instant messaging.
Twitterers can follow each other by finding a person's username and then clicking the "Follow" button. The other person then gets notified and can choose whether or not to follow that person back. After you've signed up and started following people, those people's tweets will appear on your Twitter page when you log in to your Twitter account. You can also use Twitter on your mobile phone through SMS text messaging. Overall, twitter is a quick and easy way to stay informed and keep in touch with an entire community of people.
This all sounds well and good, but how can a business benefit from this kind of service. Because of the vast number of people on Twitter, it's actually a great vehicle for businesses to create a dialogue and keep in close contact with many of their customers.
Here are several ways businesses can use Twitter to their advantage.
The point of Twitter is to connect people, and it can connect you with your customers or potential customers. All you have to do is be engaged and provide them with information that is valuable or interesting.
Getting your business on Twitter is easy. Just go to Twitter.com and choose a username that relates to your business or is your actual company name. Then start searching for people who are interesting or might be interested in you. Start following them and start adding to the conversation. Keep in mind that you'll get out of it what you put in to it, so put some time and effort in to staying engaged.
