All a Twitter over Social Media

Written by Shirley Lichti - May 4, 2009

Social media veterans and neophytes alike are buzzing about Twitter. During his presidential campaign, Barack Obama and his supporters frequently used Twitter generating substantial media coverage. When Oprah Winfrey posted her first tweet recently, the buzz increased to a roar.

Nielsen Online reported that 7 million people visited Twitter.com in March 2009 - up 1381% from the year before. In actuality, many of these visitors are curiosity seekers. A more recent Nielsen report found that 60% of Twitter users quit after their first month. However, many others continue to use it making it a phenomenon worth understanding from a marketing perspective.

So what is Twitter?
It's a free social media tool that allows people to communicate and stay connected in real-time. Think of it like having your own micro-blog, with messages - or "tweets" - restricted to 140 characters.

Getting Started
Setting up an account is easy - just go to Twitter.com and click on "Join." Before you do, take some time to think about whether you want your account to be a personal one or a professional one representing your company.

Decide what to write in your personal bio (160 characters max.) Check out the bios of others to get ideas on what you might include in your own. Bear in mind that your bio is your ad for why someone should follow you so don't skip this step.

You'll also want to load a profile picture since it will help others to identify you and promote your personal brand. Although Twitter will let you choose from several background images, your bio will be short so you may want to create your own personalized background to provide more information such as a description of what you or your company does, your email address, website address and so on.

Listen First
As with other social media, it's always a good idea to listen for a while before you dive in and join the conversation. By following the posts of other people, you'll get a feel for Twitter before you start posting your own tweets. This will help you learn the environment and etiquette such as using hash tags (e.g. #FollowFriday) or retweet (RT) to give others credit for their posts.

Use the "find people" tool to identify people or organizations you want to follow. If you are interested in marketing related posts, consider following Marketing Magazine, Marketing Sherpa, and Advertising Age. (Feel free to follow me at slichti. My posts are primarily related to marketing communications, branding, new advertising campaigns and/or social media.)

Once you understand the Twitter environment, start tweeting. Remember you only get 140 characters so you'll need to be succinct. If you are including a web link, consider using a URL shortener such as tinyURL to help you condense the number of characters used.

Twitter as a Marketing Tool
Don't make the mistake of thinking that Twitter is just another online time-burner providing yet one more way to chat to your friends. Unlike other social media such as Facebook or MySpace, the demographics of Twitter users skews to an older crowd, 25-54 year olds, with the oldest members of this group being the most likely to visit Twitter.

This makes it attractive as a marketing tool to reach business audiences. Companies are currently using Twitter to distribute news, offers product specials, launch new products, build product awareness, and strengthen customer relationships.

For example, you can monitor Twitter to understand what customers and others are saying about your company. If you learn they have issues, you can respond to quickly address these problems. Comcast, a U.S. communications company, launched a ComCastCares Twitter account to provide real-time customer service to its customers.

Tom Liston, director of research with brokerage boutique Versant Partners in Toronto, uses Twitter to quickly find links to summaries of companies he is following. As an investment professional, Twitter only allows him to understand what market participants are thinking and to directly communicate with clients.

Computer giant Dell set up an account called Dell Outlet. When you opt-in to follow it, you can learn more about their offerings. If you don't want to receive promotional messages, don't follow this Twitter profile.
Apple CEO, Steve Jobs, has used Twitter to announce new products, driving huge traffic volumes to the site.

Twitter allows businesses to be proactive in marketing efforts by listening to what customers are saying about their company or brands, engage in a conversation and further brand building efforts. As an exceptionally low cost marketing tool with the potential to reach far more people than you could with conventional media, it's worth consideration.

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