In praise of Twitter

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Twitter is one of those applications that seems to possess no middle ground. You either love it and want to sign up immediately and see how popular you can become with a horde of followers (add obligatory Stephen Fry reference here...) or you consider it to be yet another example of how normally sane people can be persuaded to spend long hours on the computer announcing that they are on the computer! But for business, Twitter could be another useful tool to get information about your business out into the public domain and get the customers in.

For business, Twitter is an information service for the time-poor web-savvy professional. Naturally, this is a very attractive demographic for many businesses. Using a Twitter account brands you as web-literate, cutting edge and flags that for hundred of thousands of other user out there who are conditioned to small snippets of information in Twitter you are a source of accredited information. Consider this: you are looking for company, a piece of work you want to outsource, that work needs a knowledge of what the net can do. Which do you choose, Company A which boasts a website and nothing more or Company B which posts on Twitter and gives you a pretty good idea of who they are and what they do before you have either called or emailed them!

Twitter accounts give businesses an edge, a chance to make a connection with potential followers in a way that can't be done with emails, printed literature or information on the website. Twitter is part of the Web 2.0 ethos that breaks down the hierarchy between the provider and the consumer. While for some organisations this may be an uncomfortable transition, it is one that will reap benefits. Twitter is essentially a free advertising opportunity that brings customers direct to you. Any company with an eye to the future will want to get on the Twitter ladder, with a customised home page and regular output to the web.

Twitter, like so much of the Web 2.0 universe, is content intensive, so weekly updates are not an option. The way to get followers is to make frequent but useful posts to the web. Having an account, which can be accessed by a number of employees, is one way to ensure content, but the company needs to be very clear about what information finds its way into the wild. In the same way that a press statement would be a carefully considered document, all Twitter releases need to be centred around the values of the company. That is not to say that the tweets need to be formal or dull but posting every time the managing director has a cup of coffee is not likely to pull in the followers.

The application offers the chance to delete followers, so businesses need have no fear that they will be inundated with abusive comments, but the clever company will actually address these comments directly and out in the open often resulting in the would-be heckler slinking away with their tale between their legs or even being converted into an evangelist for the company.

Since Twitter can be used for a mobile device, the switched on company can effectively post impressions and information from conferences and events. Applications such as Twitpix exist to enable users to upload photos providing another link between users and the company.

Its easy to reject Twitter as another fad on the internet and another excuse for anal retentive users to post every passing thought that crosses their mind. But even if Twitter is a fad; its the fad of the moment and given its user base can businesses afford not to use it?

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