I will be the first to admit, when I heard about Twitter I thought…WHY? Do we really need one more thing to update and check—and then check again?
Well, I guess need might be a strong word. However, Twitter is about more than just finding out what pop stars are up to in their spare time (Lily Allen is drinking Guinness and watching cricket as I write this).
In case you’re not yet intimately familiar with this contraption, Twitter is a website that allows a user to send out 140-character-or-less public messages to anyone that “follows” him or her. Anyone can follow anyone, and “tweets” (messages) are seen by everyone.
This sounds deceptively simple and mostly useless, but I assure you, it is pretty damn cool. In fact, my favorite thing about Twitter—and the reason I have written this post—is that it can be a useful tool for business.
For example, if you have ever sent out any sort of direct marketing materials, you know how excited the average person is to receive another piece of junk mail. Instead of an envelope that does not get opened, what if that envelope engaged in a conversation with your potential customer? What if you could sell your pizza to anyone that happened to be hungry at the exact moment they are looking for something to eat? It might go something like this:
Bob owns a pizza place and beerboy847 is a regular customer who follows Bob’s account on Twitter.
beerboy847 Starving! What to eat?
BobzPizzaBiz @beerboy847 How about 20% off a pizza? Thin crust sausage, right?
Not only is beerboy impressed by the level of personal interaction, but anyone else following Bob is pretty darn impressed too.
But that’s just a little sample-size taste of what Twitter can do. Check out Twitter’s very own guide for businesses and follow us on Twitter for more!
-Craig
