Tweet me, baby!
By Susan Guthrie
Everyone is atwitter about Twitter, but what, actually, is it?
Twitter, put simply, is short (less than 140 characters) instant messaging put out into the public domain. You will receive the ‘Tweets’ of people you choose to follow and those who choose to follow you will receive all yours.
Many of us will have read news and magazines reports about how celebrities love Twittering as a way of letting their friends and fans know what they’re doing. This has led to the general public conception that Twitter is a mindless, time waster. Really, who wants to know if Brittney Spears has just visited Starbucks and is loving her mocha whatever? Seriously.
But the interesting thing is, it’s how you use Twitter.
Let’s have a look at the idea of social Tweeting. Yes, Twitter can be mindless drivel Tweeted to fill in time during the ad breaks on TV or when you’re stuck on a bus (don’t subscribe to these types of friends unless you’re in your teens), but Twitter can be used as a useful way of staying in touch.
Let’s remember that many of us now have phones that connect to the Net. Here’s an example of when Twitter can be socially great. I’m on Twitter and so are a whole heap of my good friends. I have an hour to kill that I hadn’t anticipated or planned, so I Tweet my location and ask if any friends would like to join me for a coffee.
Instead of sending countless text messages which costs heaps of money, all my friends who follow me will instantly receive my Tweet and perhaps one of them will be in the neighbourhood with time to join me. How cool is that?
And what about business?
Twitter is fast becoming the marketing tool of choice for savvy business owners. Sales Specialist, Cindy King, was reluctant to use Twitter at first but decided to give it a try after a high-profile colleague suggested that it would be a good marketing tool. Within a month King experienced an 800 percent increase in inquiries about her business.
The massive Twitter population provides fantastic potential to get your voice heard, your product advertised and information about you or your business passed onto other people through your followers’ lists resulting in phenomenal advertising reach.
Business Tweets can supply interesting information and links for clients, promote products, forward great tips or thoughts from other lists you belong to, or even give customers the specials of the day!
Think about it? If you are the local café and want to let your customers know the specials of the day, what better way than through a daily Tweet? They don’t have to call you or come to your café to look at your notice board, they simply sign up to follow you on Twitter and bingo! receive the specials each day!
You’re probably thinking that perhaps your friends don’t want to know about your products, marketing Tweets and so on. Well the good news is you can create lists and control who you Tweet to.
Twitter is easy and connects you to potentially thousands of people in a very short time. To start your Twitter journey go to twitter.com and sign up! It’s that easy.