Inside the Suitcase

What is Social Media? An Intro to Twitter. (3 of 6) / January 11, 2010

Twitter

Twitter is a micro-blogging platform which allows you to post and read messages of 140 characters or less, known as tweets. You can also deliver direct messages to subscribers, known as followers. Users can send and receive tweets via the Twitter website, text messaging (SMS) or external applications. Some consider Twitter a fad but even if Twitter isnt around in five years, an evolution of Twitter will be.

Twitter shrinks the emotional distance between your company/products and your customers. Companies using Twitter successfully use it to connect to customers, gain immediate feecback and enhance their brands.

The benefits of Twitter:

• Connect to individuals instead of a faceless demographic
• Share information quickly with your audience
• Gather real-time market intelligence and feedback
• Build relationships with customers, partners, etc
• Show up in real-time Google results
• Respond to your audience openly and honestly
• Build customer loyalty
• Feature Twitter-only sales for easy measurement
• Push people to your website, blog and other social mediums
• Tell a business or person about your experience with their product or service
• Learn from a business or person

Twitter best practices:

• Include people tweeting from your company account in the Twitter bio
• Listen regularly for comments about your company positive and negative
• Use a casual, friendly and sincere tone
• Respond to questions or comments addressed to you
• Retweet a particular message if you like it
• Post links you think people will find interesting
• Tweet information that your followers will find valuable
• Share some personal information you are a person
• Tweet 2-3 times a day
• Add a Twitter button on your website
• Dont spam
• Create a unique background and color palette for your bio that matches your brand
• Add a link to your Twitter account in your email signature

Dell on Twitter A Case Study:

Dell Outlet needs to get their refurbished computers sold fast. Twitter provides the platform they need to get the word out quickly to a vast number of people. Dell Outlet has earned more than $3 million in revenue attributable to its exclusive Twitter promotions.

Have questions about how to get started with social media in general or Twitter in particular?  to see how we can help you.

Check out the previous articles of this series:

• Intro to Social Media
• LinkedIn

Posted by Rachel

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