So you’ve got a LinkedIn profile which you keep somewhat up to date and your company has a decent corporate website. That’s enough right? You don’t need to “Tweet” do you? Well, perhaps you should. Staying connected in the business world is critical to overall success and Twitter is opening up new ways to quickly communicate. Your Tweets can be found by any popular web search engine and will remain as a permanent record of what you say and what you stand for.
What started as a simple status message… ‘What are you doing?’ has given way to a number of people and businesses using Twitter as a real two way communications tool.
The real power is realized when conversations emerge. After all, business interaction is all about conversations and communicating with customers, partners, suppliers, etc. You might assume that Twitter conversations are just between two people but theyr’re not , everyone on Twitter can see them and this is where things get interesting .
Users (individuals or businesses) can set up searches on keywords and monitor anyone talking about them. If they see an interesting post they may join in and connect with you, and so your network grows .. with people around the globe who share a common interests. On the main True Reckoning site, I’ve posted an interesting video of Charlie Rose interviewing Twitter CEO Evan Williams.
In late March, Gartner released a report highlighting the different ways companies are adopting Twitter for business use. Some are tweeting, some are just listening, and some really savvy companies are doing both. Sarah Perez, from ReadWriteWeb, also covered the Gartner release here.
Before any company employees start tweeting, it would be a good idea to remind them that the same rules that apply to other web participation (like blogging, for example) also apply to Twitter. “As Twitter is a public forum, employees should understand the limits of what is acceptable and desirable,” says Jeffrey Mann, research vice president at Gartner. “If organizations have not defined a public Web participation policy, they should do so as quickly as possible.”
From their research, Gartner has narrowed down four different ways companies use Twitter: direct, indirect, internal, and signaling.
Direct
Some companies are using Twitter as a marketing or public relations channel, much like an extension to their corporate blogs. They will post about corporate accomplishments and distribute links that take people back to corporate web pages, press releases, and other promotional sites.This method probably seems to be the easiest way to get started, but companies need to be aware that using Twitter like this could actually hinder their image in the Twitter community. A whole bunch of self-serving, self-promotional tweets can actually damage their reputation – Twitter folks like a personal touch. Again, its about conversations – NOT broadcasting. Updates are good, but dialogue is better.
Gartner also warns that responding to comments can be risky when going this route, but, while that’s true to a point, when done right responding on Twitter can be of great benefit to the company. To see some examples of brands that “get” how to tweet and respond, check out what Ford does, or Starbucks, or Dell.
Here are a couple of resources to help your company get familiar with how other businesses do this:
- 16 Examples of Huge Brands Using Twitter for Business
- 40 of the Best Twitter Brands and the People Behind Them
Indirect
The second method some companies use on Twitter is to let their employees tweet instead. As the employees use Twitter to enhance their own personal reputations, the company’s reputation is also enhanced by proxy. Employees twittering away with excitement about their work, developments in their industry, new products, or other interesting tidbits, even if unrelated to the company itself, can promote positive feelings for whichever business they (indirectly) represent. Another good reason for having employees tweet instead of the company itself is if the company wants to be seen as employing influential leaders. This list of Forrester analysts on Twitter offers a great example.
Internal
Some companies use Twitter internally to share ideas or communicate about what projects they’re working on. If this information is confidential in nature, employees either need to protect their updates or even better, not use Twitter at all. Gartner doesn’t recommend using Twitter or any other consumer microblogging service in this way because there’s no guarantee of security. If, however, your company wants to use microblogging at the office, there are tools designed for businesses that let you do just this. Yammer and present.ly are two of the top options for a Twitter-like platform for the workplace.
Inbound Signaling
Some companies aren’t as much Twitter participants as they are Twitter “listeners.” Using search tools like search.twitter.com or desktop applications like TweetDeck are easy ways to keep track of what’s being said about the company, its product names, or even the industry as a whole. Smart companies are tuning in to these micro-conversations to get early warnings of problems and to collect feedback on product issues or ideas. Recently, Microsoft’s PR agency released their Twitter trend-tracking service to the public. Called Twendz, this tool goes beyond simple Twitter searches to also track sentiment, as well.
Getting Started
If your company is thinking about jumping into the Twitter foray, as with any communications tool, it’s best not to do so blindly. Gartner’s breakdown of the four ways companies use Twitter is a good starting point, but, in reality, developing a strategy is much more complex than the examples listed above. You can follow up on the ideas in this article by reading Chris Brogan’s “50 Ideas on Using Twitter for Business,” then subscribing to his blog for more insights.
Everyone has their own method of tackling Twitter. To learn more, check out Rodney Rumford (Twitter name Rumford), a Web entrepreneur, Twitter advocate (he has over 5,600 followers), and author of Twitter as a Business Tool: Building Your Business 140 Characters at a Time (available at www.twitterbusinessbook.com). Rumford says Twitter “gives you the ability to be a fly on the wall at a party and listen to everyone talking and when you hear something interesting, you just jump in and join the conversation.”
The slideshare to the right from Rumford is a nice intro to using Twitter as a business communications tool. Rumford says many people who join Twitter make the mistake of using it as a public chat. And while you certainly can do that, it’s smarter to use it as a forum to engage with others. “Use a business casual tone,” Rumford advises, “and you can’t go wrong.” For Rumford the key to Twitter is education. Rumford’s goal on Twitter is “to educate and inform,” a method that has helped him to attract a large number followers.
But Rumford cautions that it’s easy to get overwhelmed by all the Twitter conversations (he likens it to a river that often turns into rapids). He says, “If you let it, Twitter can drown you. So focus on who matters most to your business and nurture those relationships.”
Of course, there are the mandatory Twitter do’s and don’ts. Rumford shared some of what he calls the “deadly sins”: First, don’t use Twitter to hard sell. “Every conversation can’t be about you. Don’t push market.” He also warns against following everyone who follows you. Some people, he said, view the number of followers they have as a sort of popularity contest. Rumford says he’d rather be “smart and influential on Twitter” than popular. And don’t worry if someone you’re following doesn’t follow you back. “Sometimes I follow people just to listen,” adds Rumford.
Another one of Rumford’s “deadly sins” is to not have a profile and picture on your Twitter page. And he insists you must link to your Web site or blog for the best results.
So, go ahead and get started and please post experience and thoughts in the comment section below. If you’re already a Twitizen, please share how you’re using Twitter with our readers. Either way, don’t forget to follow me on Twitter.
Enjoy the conversations!
Nice summary Rick. With Twitter and micro blogging getting so much main stream media coverage it has become the topic of conversation at many water coolers. The challenge comes when companies don’t really understand it and just jump in not prepared. The truth is that whatever you do online you still need to follow the basics of marketing. The cost to start your own twitter account is zero, but that is only on the surface. There is a large component of time required. Most marketing departments struggle with generating content on time. When was your last website refresh? With corporate cutbacks and an increased focus on ROI, actually finding the time to engage with people on twitter is the challenge.
I am not saying the companies should not get involved, but it needs to be part of the marketing plan not just something that you get to when you have time. Look back 10 years ago when intranets and then extranets were starting out. Many companies jumped in and created the bones of the site but thats where it stopped. They never really pushed through and found the ROI they wanted. Why? Normally it was resources – time and human. Everyone already had a fulltime job and commitments to be executed. Not many actually hired new head count or changed job functions to manage this new thing. If blogging or podcasting or twittering is on your radar screen at work, make sure it is a part of your plan and that you have dedicated the time both upfront to plan and day to day to execute or your experience and success will not live up to the hype.
For companies that can get past that and are ready to commit to Twitter, then take a step back from the online world of answering “What are you doing?” in 140 characters or less and think about your conversation. For many people it is easier to grasp the concept when you look at it in a more familiar setting – like a tradeshow cocktail reception. People are mingling, there are conversations happening everywhere. Some people already know each other, some are just hanging back, others still are on a mission to speak to the last presenter to come off the stage. The key element is “people” all with their own needs, desires and agendas. Twitter is about conversations too. The power of twitter is that you can hear all of them at once. While you are making your strategy, try testing it against the tradeshow cocktail reception scenario. If you walk in and start shouting at everyone “Come to our both and learn the top 10 secrets to make you rich with email marketing”, will anyone listen? If they do, are they who you want to talk with? Are you listening? Are you responding?
If you are considering adding twitter to your marketing mix, but can’t get the commitment to go corporate with it – try it out for yourself. Establish your own personal brand and learn how the tool works. Make some mistakes. Join the growing cocktail party!
I certainly won’t disagree about “Staying connected in the business world is critical”. However where I think Twitter doesn’t work is the usefulness of the information versus the time it requires to read and update.
These days, you need to be connected with phone, blog, email and instant messenger and I recall a graph that showed the time spent in interruptions which was going exponentially over time.
If you want to stay productive – no matter in which field you are -, you need to keep in control these new sources of information. I’m still would like to see a proof on how Twitter can carry valuable information that the other channels don’t. The only real value I see these days is as a marketing tool because in this field, you can’t avoid it anymore.
I know absolutely nothing about Twitters … look forward to learning more. Also have no practical experience with wiki technology. At a conceptual level, they strike me as identical in that both seek to facilitate communication, exchange of ideas, rapid/efficient development/decision-making.
If this is true, the question that pops in to my mind is would it not be even better if there were one platform wherein folks could do it all? Sometimes the communication would be “learning” or sharing information-oriented; other times it would be development-oriented. To have access to all information on a topic of interest via one window (whether it be learning/info. sharing or development-related) would be a dream come true … or maybe, a nightmare … all depends on your perspective.