Do You Tweet?
If you’re not familiar with Twitter, it is thee dominant micro-blogging service. The only other player is Jaiku. They were acquired by Google, and we’re still waiting to learn more about Google’s plans for them. We know it has something to with their mobile strategy….
Twitter users type message to each other (known as tweets) in short sentences (140 characters max) what they are doing right now. The early Twitter adopters were people with time on their hands twittering about lunch plans, restaurant experiences, bad dates, and just whatever they were doing in the moment. Since tweets are accessible through SMS and MMS, the tweets have become prolific among the tech savvy crowd.
But wait! Twitter isn’t just for the Silicon Valley types. Anyone with a desire to connect with others in a quick way, while reinforcing their name and brand, will find it useful.
Twittering allows us to understand people better. Twittering is a form of a conversation. Is any conversation with your customers bad? Twittering can open dialogues which may not otherwise open up because they are “in the now” and “about the now.” Twittering with customers can strengthen customer relationships, build trust and lead to new opportunities.
Have you noticed that we’re calling micro blogging Twittering. This is like saying I’ll Google a keyword. But, I digress…
I’ve always defined micro blogging as a multi person IM chat. Micro blogging is real time like IM but it’s one to many. You invite people into your Twitter group(s).
So, here are some business applications to consider for Twitter.
A product manager Twitters with the people in a beta program to get real time feedback of the product and allow real time interaction with the Twitter group.
A customer service manager Twitters with a select group of customers around a certain topic to get real time feedback on the topic.
A sales manager twitters with a geographically distributed sales force to get real time feedback from the field and assist in real time sale situations.
Are you starting to get the picture?
This sort of reminds me of the iPod. When the iPod was launched all the advertising showed hip people dancing to music. I have had an iPod for almost one year now. I am not that hip and I don’t listen to music with it. But, I do listen to a lot of podcasts which I subscribe to in iTunes. So, the “product extension” factor is evident here.
So, do you get the picture now? Twittering has real business value. You just have to give it a whirl. Now, if that doesn’t sound unhip, I don’t know what is. I told you, I’m not very hip.
Give it a whirl. www.twitter.com.
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