Are you on Twitter?

Oprah is. President Barack Obama is. Martha Stewart is. Same with Shaquille O’Neal and John Mayer. Zappos.com CEO, Tony Hseih, entrepreneur Mark Cuban and AOL co-founder, Steve Case are all tweeting away too… and that’s barely scratching the surface of the popular microblogging service’s users.

But Twitter isn’t just for the rich, famous and successful. There are 6 million users currently signed up with the service and, according to predictions by eMarketer, that number could double by the end of 2009.

Twitter is also not just for individuals. More and more businesses are tweeting, to varying degrees of success. Should your business jump on the Twitter bandwagon? Signing up for an account may seem simple enough (it’s easy and free), but the question I often hear is “then what?”

Here are a few tips for navigating the Twitter landscape as a business:

1. Pay attention. Twitter is a virtual focus group that never stops. Leverage the Twitter Search feature to keep tabs on what people are saying about your brand, your industry, your competitors, your products and your services.
2. Talk to your customers. Companies like Comcast, Starbucks and Whole Foods are using Twitter as a way to reach new customers, address customer service issues and provide an additional channel of communication outside the usual phone/email/live chat paradigm.
3. Discover sales opportunities. Take what you’ve learned from tip #1 and start following people who are twittering about what is relevant to your business. Reply to them if it’s appropriate. Many users treat Twitter as their own personal search engine and if they’re asking the Twitterverse which live chat service they should evaluate for their business, you can bet I’m replying back and telling them to check out BoldChat. The response has been positive thus far.
4. Don’t spam – engage. Twitter users don’t want to follow someone who only posts links to their website every day. And it’s unlikely that you’ll get many followers if you’re not following anyone else back. Twitter is based on reciprocation. It’s about participation and conversation. So go ahead and post news and links to information that you think your followers might find interesting, but make sure you’re talking to them too.
5. Be human. Part of Twitter’s appeal is the ability follow users without requiring approval. For many, it’s a much more intimate way to connect with celebrities, enterpreneurs and brands than has ever been possible before. Don’t forget that while you are representing your business, your followers want to know more about the people behind the Twitter username. So post TwitPics of your team, talk about office outings and show your personality.
6. Follow us. Ok, so this isn’t really a tip, but we would be honored to have you follow BoldChat on Twitter. We’ll even follow back.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 6th, 2009 at 4:38 pm and is filed under Branding, Customer Service, Marketing, Social Networking. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.