Twitter Power for Business
I've been slow to come around to the usefulness of Twitter. For me, it's another time-draining service with limited appeal, a la the Second Life fervor of 2006 (I abandoned my avatar sleeping on a couch in an empty island nightclub in March 2006--sweet dreams), and I don't plan on getting suckered in. However, evidence is mounting that marketers can indeed build and maintain relationships with customers through 140-character tweets. And if your customers are there and wish to be communicated with that way it may be worth exploring.
Helping make its argument to me, Twitter posted a Twitter 101 for Business guide on its site last week that is tailored to showing how businesses can benefit. It includes examples of how large marketers, like Dell and JetBlue, and small marketers like an independent Houston coffee shop are using the service.
I'm still a tough sell, I'll admit, but users of Twitter really seem passionate about it and if you can channel that passion toward your product or sevice, you're welcome to reap the benefits at no cost to you but your time.
By the way, Marketing News Staff Writer Elisabeth Sullivan wrote an excellent article exploring the business uses of Twitter last year (when Twitter's mere existence was fewer than two years old and drawing fewer than 3 million uniques per month--it now draws more than 21 million, per Nielsen.) AMA/MarketingPower also tweets at the hashtag #marketing_power
