Why use Twitter?

03 June 2009

If you are a business with a website then you need customers. Finding them should be your main priority once you have developed your product or service. Marketing your business on the web can seem a daunting task - but it needn't be - Twitter can help both you and your customers...

You have probably already heard the term "social networking" from friends or colleagues. In the social network marketing sector Twitter is king.

You will also have heard that people "tweet" about the silliest things, like what they had for breakfast, where they went for a walk today etc. etc. - but those very people might be interested in hearing about your online business, what you sell, what you offer, those very people are your potential customers...

Twitter is a "micro-blogging platform". Your company can use it to "tweet" (talk) to anyone who wants to listen - about any subject that interests you both. You can "eavesdrop" on other people in the same business as you and find out how they are marketing their businesses - which is invaluable information for any business.

It is quite simply a very fast way to inform interested people in your product, service or latest news. Twitter is free so you should post a link to your Twitter account on your website, emails, lettterheads,  business cards and e-mail signature.

For all businesses customer service is hugely time consuming, and is usually managed by email and telephone. But with spam filters becoming more and more aggressive due to increased spam levels email is fast becoming less usable and reliable for such an important role in business.

This is where Twitter can be a real boon.  Twitter allows real-time communication between you and your cleints or potential cleints. It allows you to send out new product information to your customers instantly. Your customers can tweet back or follow the link in your tweet to the website page that is showing your new product or latest news etc. etc..

Numerous free Twitter tools also exist to help make your Twitter account easier to manage. Programs such as TweetDeck, Twhirl, Seesmic Desktop and Tweet Later can be used to send, receive and schedule your tweets. iPhone users can use the excellent Twittelator Pro to do the same things from their phones.

Keeping communication for your customers as simple and as fast as possible is the key to good communications and customer service.