We really can’t deny the fact that businesses are testing out Twitter as part of their steps into the social media landscape. You can say it’s a stupid application, that no business gets done there, but there are too many of us (including me) that can disagree and point out business value. I’m not going to address the naysayers much with this. Instead, I’m going to offer 50 thoughts for people looking to use Twitter for business. And by “business,” I mean anything from a solo act to a huge enterprise customer.
Your mileage may vary, and that’s okay. Further, you might have some really great ideas to add. That’s why we have lively conversations here at [chrisbrogan.com] in the comments section. Jump right in!
Oh, and please feel free to reblog this wherever. Just be kind and link back to the original article.
50 Ideas on Using Twitter for Business
First Steps
- Build an account and immediate start using Twitter Search to listen for your name, your competitor’s names, words that relate to your space. (Listening always comes first.)
- Add a picture. ( Shel reminds us of this.) We want to see you.
- Talk to people about THEIR interests, too. I know this doesn’t sell more widgets, but it shows us you’re human.
- Point out interesting things in your space, not just about you.
- Share links to neat things in your community. ( @wholefoods does this well).
- Don’t get stuck in the apology loop. Be helpful instead. ( @jetblue gives travel tips.)
- Be wary of always pimping your stuff. Your fans will love it. Others will tune out.
- Promote your employees’ outside-of-work stories. ( @TheHomeDepot does it well.)
- Throw in a few humans, like RichardAtDELL, LionelAtDELL, etc.
- Talk about non-business, too, like @astrout and @jstorerj from Mzinga.
Ideas About WHAT to Tweet
- Instead of answering the question, “What are you doing?”, answer the question, “What has your attention?”
- Have more than one twitterer at the company. People can quit. People take vacations. It’s nice to have a variety.
- When promoting a blog post, ask a question or explain what’s coming next, instead of just dumping a link.
- Ask questions. Twitter is GREAT for getting opinions.
- Follow interesting people. If you find someone who tweets interesting things, see who she follows, and follow her.
- Tweet about other people’s stuff. Again, doesn’t directly impact your business, but makes us feel like you’re not “that guy.”
- When you DO talk about your stuff, make it useful. Give advice, blog posts, pictures, etc.
- Share the human side of your company. If you’re bothering to tweet, it means you believe social media has value for human connections. Point us to pictures and other human things.
- Don’t toot your own horn too much. (Man, I can’t believe I’m saying this. I do it all the time. - Side note: I’ve gotta stop tooting my own horn).
- Or, if you do, try to balance it out by promoting the heck out of others, too.
Some Sanity For You
- You don’t have to read every tweet.
- You don’t have to reply to every @ tweet directed to you (try to reply to some, but don’t feel guilty).
- Use direct messages for 1-to-1 conversations if you feel there’s no value to Twitter at large to hear the conversation ( got this from @pistachio).
- Use services like Twitter Search to make sure you see if someone’s talking about you. Try to participate where it makes sense.
- 3rd party clients like Tweetdeck and Twhirl make it a lot easier to manage Twitter.
- If you tweet all day while your coworkers are busy, you’re going to hear about it.
- If you’re representing clients and billing hours, and tweeting all the time, you might hear about it.
- Learn quickly to use the URL shortening tools like TinyURL and all the variants. It helps tidy up your tweets.
- If someone says you’re using twitter wrong, forget it. It’s an opt out society. They can unfollow if they don’t like how you use it.
- Commenting on others’ tweets, and retweeting what others have posted is a great way to build community.
The Negatives People Will Throw At You
- Twitter takes up time.
- Twitter takes you away from other productive work.
- Without a strategy, it’s just typing.
- There are other ways to do this.
- As Frank hears often, Twitter doesn’t replace customer service (Frank is @comcastcares and is a superhero for what he’s started.)
- Twitter is buggy and not enterprise-ready.
- Twitter is just for technonerds.
- Twitter’s only a few million people. (only)
- Twitter doesn’t replace direct email marketing.
- Twitter opens the company up to more criticism and griping.
Some Positives to Throw Back
- Twitter helps one organize great, instant meetups (tweetups).
- Twitter works swell as an opinion poll.
- Twitter can help direct people’s attention to good things.
- Twitter at events helps people build an instant “backchannel.”
- Twitter breaks news faster than other sources, often (especially if the news impacts online denizens).
- Twitter gives businesses a glimpse at what status messaging can do for an organization. Remember presence in the 1990s?
- Twitter brings great minds together, and gives you daily opportunities to learn (if you look for it, and/or if you follow the right folks).
- Twitter gives your critics a forum, but that means you can study them.
- Twitter helps with business development, if your prospects are online (mine are).
- Twitter can augment customer service. (but see above)
What else would you add? How are you using Twitter for your business?
By the way, Jeremiah Owyang has a great post on this, too.
The Social Media 100 is a project by Chris Brogan dedicated to writing 100 useful blog posts in a row about the tools, techniques, and strategies behind using social media for your business, your organization, or your own personal interests. Swing by [chrisbrogan.com] for more posts in the series, and if you have topic ideas, feel free to share them, as this is a group project, and your opinion matters.
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Great post there Chris :)
Nice list of various aspects, especially the positives to throw back!
Chris -
Nicely organized batch of quality examples; I’ve had decent results from my mini-interview series (that you even participated in as well) at http://www.TweetandGreet.com
Chris,
I also posted some ramblings about Twitter related to business. I’m fairly obsessed with the branding aspect of Twitter right now. It seems applicable, hopefully it adds to your discussion here.
http://www.originalanalogmachine.com/2008/08/20/why-twitter-will-win-big-in-the-social-media-sweepstakes/
Great post - I especially like #s 31-50…I posted something similar about using Twitter as a marketing tool - specifically using that search bar to build your network on Twitter. There are so many tangent groups to your business, and this research and following can be done so quickly…http://tinyurl.com/55syrk.
Thanks for all that you do…
Julie
I just find it’s a great way to stop and actually pay attention to just what the heck it actually IS that I am doing with my time right now. Stops me from unconsciously blundering through the work day without noticing it.
I’ve followed your tweets too Chris. It’s always great to toot our own horns but always better to help others with their great articles on the net too.
Liked the ideas on the positive stuffs to throw back. :)
Daniel
Great post Chris!
Now, we just need to ram it down their throats!
- The concepts/ideas that is ;-)
I love your post! Chris does it again! Nice job!
Chris, great post. I tweet for Hoovers.com as @hoovers, and I think your #18 is so valuable.
I would add that those using Twitter for business should have a sense of humor in their tweets when they can. Not cracking jokes per se, but being natural. (Unless you’re @PopeyesChicken, in which case keep the jokes coming.)
Thanks!
zack
Chris:
Thanks for the great info on how to use Twitter. I always enjoy your tweets and will definitely incorporate some of your ideas into my future tweets!
Glo.
Thanks Chris. This is all good stuff. Once again, I’ll be talking about and linking to your site on my blog (which is geared toward helping my MarCom team understand/adapt to Social Media). Pretty soon, it’ll just redirect to you.
Earlier today, I was telling my team of the importance of being human on Twitter. It’s a little scary for PR-types, I think, to blur that line.
You sort of cover this indirectly: Don’t treat Twitter as an RSS feed. I enjoy getting news on Twitter but not when it’s a string of tweets that are just a repurposing of a newsfeed. @ColonelTribune does it best. @statesman is getting there.
Awesome post! This is GREAT advice for head honchos who don’t see the value of Twitter. My colleague, community manager @workdotcom has had tremendous success using Twitter - we’ve implemented things on our website that come from direct suggestions from Twitter followers. We’ve also had awesome new members come on board to contribue to Work.com. The key is TOTALLY to engage in dialogue with your fellow tweeters.
I’d elaborate the first item, Chris, by suggesting before someone creates a Twitter account that he or she or it listens first.
If you create an account before watching existing conversations on Twitter Search and Tweet Scan, you may inadvertently create the wrong account name, for instance, and be forced to deleting it and starting all over. It doesn’t take time to delete an account but the principle takes a lifetime.
Your first mission is to listen. Your second mission is to join with a branded name/handle, but also with descriptive content in your profile description, at 160 characters or less.
You should also sign up for alerts on relevant content at Tweet Beep, which is akin to Google Alerts. If anyone tweets about you or any keyword or URL you choose, you’ll get an emailed alert. Very handy.
Great post. Twitter’s also great for learning about your target market - whether it’s customers or in my case fellow professionals and journalists. I’m increasingly thinking that Twitter’s a business rather than personal tool.
Great post, twitter rocks
Thanks Chris for the link. One thing to remember is that Twitter isn’t right for all folks nor all companies. If their audience isn’t there, or they truly don’t want to be part of the dialog, then it doesn’t matter.
my comment is on the friendfeed thread. http://friendfeed.com/e/0e568d34-fa5e-cb53-91dd-fa4e090aa886/50-Ideas-on-Using-Twitter-for-Business/
Chris,
First, let me start by saying “thank you!” You are too kind. My colleague Jim @jstorerj and I are honored to mentioned in this post alongside so many other great brands/names. To that end, Jim and I work really hard to put a “human” face on Mzinga (which also has a Twitter account that Jim and I sometimes tweet from).
Second, this is a wonderfully prescriptive post (and one that I will start sending to all my “newish” friends and followers. I like that you not only clearly stated clear business value but also mentioned up front what some of the detractors are saying/will say about Twitter. Thanks for once again bringing tremendous value to my feedstream!
Best,
Aaron | @astrout
Thanks for the mention Chris. For a lot of companies Twitter is an instant focus group and a great way to dip their collective toes in the social media pool. But as Frank from Comcast found out, you better be prepared to swim.
Jim | @jstorerj
Chris,
This is perfect for @clarisnetworks.
Thanks, we’ve got a new intern working on the @clarisnetworks account and she can benefit from your thoughts greatly.
@Brooks - you raise an interesting question, and this isn’t intended to cast any negative light on your no-doubt-capable intern: did you put your brand in the hands of an intern? In your mind, is Twitter an intern-level platform?
I’m curious to know what others think about that one?
And again, no offense meant, but rather, a question.
I agree that Twitter has business applications–certainly if a customer tweets you that they have a problem, then you should try and fix that problem. In that sense, it is a wonderful extension of customer service.
But I disagree with Red Rocket, above, that it is great for learning about your target market–unless your target market is Twitter users. While I use Twitter every day and have no doubts that it will continue to grow as a platform, current regular usage of Twitter still falls below 1% of the general U.S. pop. The potential to go awry here due to non-response bias (all the folks NOT on Twitter) makes using Twitter for _strategic_ purposes a bit dicey.
Chris, what are your thoughts on how the Marketing function can make strategic use of Twitter? The tactical applications are clear.
@Chris & Brooks - I think it depends on the company and what stage they are in with regard to Twitter. Some companies are really focused on listening and that may be a just fine for an intern. As they progress (or decide) to begin engaging in the conversation they’ll need more oversight. Again, depending on who the company is and how they’ve engaged their prospects/customers in the past, the role might need to be quickly transitioned to someone with more experience.
My two cents… YMMV.
Jim | @jstorerj
@ Stephanie Elsea - Thank you!
I would absolutely not put my business in the hands of an intern: and there are reasons for this. I do not feel that interns are incapable of handling that responsibility, but rather lack the experience of MY brand and what it is.
My company would have a seasoned employee doing the Twittering, because they know my brand, how we operate, and the sincere focus that we have on excellence in giving customer service and listening.
Interns can be very capable and valuable assets: however they lack the specific knowledge of my brand to be the sole representer. Perhaps if they were paired with a veteran employee, that might be a better situation. To learn the ropes with someone that’s grown with my company would be essential.
Twitter for an intern? Depends on the intern.
People commonly think of an intern as an undergrad making copies for $10/hour. Leading a company’s entry into Twitter and other social media wouldn’t be a fit.
The word ‘intern’ also applies to higher-level folks, though. I’m thinking of MBA interns who may have 5-10 years of work experience, often as consultants with major firms, and are paid a heck of a lot more than $10/hour. With those folks the challenge is finding assignments that are meaty enough. I always fight to have them do something meaningful and big that’ll leave an impact on the company long after the assignment is over. For a company without dedicated social media headcount, leading the Twitter charge would fit that bill, IMHO.
Other note - getting ANYONE to take this on as part of their job can be a challenge in many corporate environments. That’s why I’m so grateful to @zackgonzales for taking it on not as a side job, but as one of the many missions he leads for Hoover’s.
I echo some of the others that say it depends how you plan to utilize Twitter. If you are just starting out with the listening phase, or if you have a super high level intern that you can trust…perhaps it might work.
But, for me, the relationships we are building are too important for that. I am connected with members of the media, partners, area experts, etc. I would not want to intrust an intern to build those relationships. The relationships have value because the two people on both ends know how to make them have value, how to collaborate together. Most interns would not be able to manage that.
I could see an intern teamed with someone with more experience as a great combination for a twitter account. The veteran could contribute company-specific tweets and the intern could offer the interesting stories and relevant links that add value to the account.
re: @chrisbrogan’s tweet:
chrisbrogan Is Twitter an intern-level responsibility for a business? http://tinyurl.com/5u75pe . Look@comments
Like anything with Twitter, the more transparent you are, the better. It depends on the social media related goals of the company. I see pros and cons to this dip-your-toe-in-before-jumping-in strategy.
If the intern is twizzlin’ to get a sense for web related buzz, to make announcements about upcoming objects-of-interest or take feedback with an “I’ll check and get back to you” sort of flare versus being expected to be the online voice of the organization, then I think it is excellent. The intern could be twitter triage! It would be difficult to expect an intern to be able to represent the company. That’s a lot of pressure for someone who may not know the company very well. That said, if Claris Networks has not made a “we’re on twitter” announcement to their customers, they might find that they have a limited, manageable following/stream at first that they can use as a microcosm for what they actually want.
Businesses should expect that they are going to achieve limited benefits vs. putting an executive or even a full-time community manager online. And I’m sure they do. Businesspeople are smart. They understand the value of their resources and tend to at least try to allocate their sparse resources carefully.
Let’s look hypothetically: I can picture the decision makers of Claris Networks in a room talking about social media and its impact. I can picture both evangelism and naysaying. I could picture them coming to the conclusion that they should be doing something and that either they will use an intern to get learnings about the benefits or until they can hire a community manager (anyone checked their site for this exciting potential career opportunity? hehe)
If you look at Claris Networks’ twitter stream, it is pretty sparse on the “social” and heavier on the announcements. This article will certainly help them shape their strategy and perhaps help them engage in a more warm and transparent way. I’m a new follower and I’m excited to see how their twitter and social media presence evolves. 加油 Go Claris Networks! 加油 Good to see an increasing number of people like Brooks Brown out there who get it!
How is it that Hamas has a twitter account and somehow twitter sees me as a bigger threat? This network is a BLUE STATE joke. I broke no terms. twitter is arbitrary tyranny.
Chris Brogan, i’d like to say that this is a great post. Sorry about my short comment. I’m brazilian and i am learning english, this is whay i have a limit to write..
This post not only gives businesses great ideas to as what they should be doing, but to as what they should not be doing. All company’s should read this and understand the benefit of joining Twitter to enhance their brand.
Businesses should expect that they are going to achieve limited benefits vs. putting an executive or even a full-time community manager online. And I’m sure they do. Businesspeople are smart. They understand the value of their resources and tend to at least try to allocate their sparse resources carefully.
Thanks for a great list! I found things that I can implement to improve my Twitter experience!
One of the things that commonly gets overlooked is that Twitter can be a great tool for companies that have a much more local focus as well. Using search.twitter.com and near:Madison,WI I can find out what people are saying in my area. Combine that with more targeted keywords and you have a pretty good direct marketing tool. I wrote about some of this here as well: http://www.dalebeermann.com/2008/08/social-media-le.html
Great post, Chris. And the stream of comments provides yet more evidence for the argument to get into social media.
As a recent intern, I’d like to throw my two cents in. I don’t think the intern should be solely responsible for creating and maintaining the Twitter account. You need someone who understands completely the company’s values to be able to develop the tone in which your tweets represent your company. That in mind, you also need someone who understands social media so you don’t end up looking like Shannon Paul’s “that guy.”
Like you recommended with #12, it’s important to build a base of people who tweet. Most interns last about three or four months, right? Say you hand over the task of building a Twitter community to your intern and she does a great job; conversation is flowing with a large following. And then she leaves. If you don’t have a full-time employee already participating, there will be a lapse in Twitter activity and a possible lapse in credibility.
Maybe the best way for interns to use Twitter is to encourage them to create an account if they don’t have one already. @internATcompany could tweet about what he’s working on and what the company’s like from a newbie insider, as well as all those expected “human” comments.
Great post, I put one together at the beginning of the month too, but now the SMS doesn’t work in the UK some of them are slightly redundant:
http://www.senokian.com/barking/2008/08/06/using-twitter-for-business/
Unfortunately Twitter has become another channel to spam people. I get lots of followers who are just spamming me every day trying to rustle up customers.
Chris and friends,
Thank you for your recent conversation about our decision to allow our new marketing coordinator try Twitter on for size.
A couple of key points:
1. Our corporate Twitter account (@clarisnetworks) is relatively new. We are still feeling our way through the applicable uses Twitter brings to the enterprise…specifically the information technology industry.
2. At the moment, we are limiting our tweets from @clarisnetworks to corporate announcements, client announcements, and related IT information/news. As we continue to move through the process, we’ll add more strategically-minded information that will assist in our branding efforts.
3. We’re the largest information technology provider in the East Tennessee Innovation Valley, and have done a terrific job at marketing/branding ourselves through other traditional means, and view @clarisnetworks, and Twitter for that matter, as an opportunity to orient ourselves with its possibilities, etc.
Do you remember the first tweet you made? I know mine wasn’t pretty…I didn’t even understand the “@” rule. But alas, as we move forward, we learn and we get better at what we do.
Some have asked if it is responsible to put your corporate branding in the hands of a new employee. I would respond by saying that I would be foolish to view Twitter (less than 1 percent of the US population) as my primary means to promote and market our company. On the contrary, Twitter is a learning platform in the 2.0 realm and a small component of our branding strategy, but one that we believe will play an important role in the near future.
Chris, in response to your specific questions:
1. Our clients, employees and culture make our brand what it is. A brand should never be reserved for a single employee or the CEO of a company. Hearts and minds, hearts and minds.
2. Twitter is considered by many to be a newbie
itself and I tend to agree given the longevity of traditional IM apps, blogs, forums, facebook and MySpace. What better avenue for a new employee to orient themselves with than a relatively new 2.0 platform?
The great fact that I believe we can all agree with is that there are no Twitter rules. There is no handbook, no official do’s and don’ts. Thus, there should be no reason to judge each other’s efforts, but only to support the proliferation of its use and integration into the 2.0 world.
We’re excited about the opportunities that Twitter presents to our business and excited that we have employees who are willing to dip their feet into the 2.0 experience and are confident in time, our viral efforts online will meet and exceed the success we enjoy from traditional marketing today.
Take care.
Great advice there Chris, much appreciated :)
It’s tough to dedicate time to the ‘niceties’ of Twittering, but you are right that they are important.
Chris,
I really appreciate the insightful guidance on this. I see so many Twits out there telling me that their feet hurt, the chili cheese dog they ate isn’t agreeing with them or they’re just plain bored. It makes it hard to bring this outreach mechanism into the boardroom and illustrate actual brand building or bottom-line value by simply being genuine and human. Thanks for helping arm me with actual business applications. I promise to not become “that guy” and pollute the Twittersphere.
Cheers,
Mark
http://www.bnj.com
@Lee Jarvis
How can Twittering be called “niceties”? Is communication with your customers a “nicety” or a necessity? If businesses continue to think that Twittering is a “nicety” instead of a very valuable tool in gaining customer satisfaction, as well as future customers by word of mouth, they will be left in the dust by the businesses that embrace it.
Nice duck photo. Did you take it? I do not see credits
Great list/post of ideas! Every business owner should read this.
Just be human, get involved in the conversations, and treat others how you would like to be treated - BTW, have fun - it’s suppose to be social!
thanks for putting something like this out there Chris. i just got done doing a presentation on social networking for nonprofits … this would have been great info to use as a resource or point people to.
I’ve been thinking about how all this is used in the not for profit space …
If anyone has thoughts or experience in this space i’d love to hear!
@Kris @ Fresh Focus
I’m not saying that Twitter IS a ‘nicety’, simply that you can spend too much time chatting about books and looking at photos etc. Maybe more so for me as I am a one man band. I produce, sell, market, socialise, host, and try to spend some quality time with my goldfish.
By the way, doesn’t it seem as though 95 percent of those folks on Twitter seem to be talking about themselves instead of spurring conversation, ideas, etc? Too much talking and not enough listening?
Chris, I’d appreciate your thoughts.
Your comment regarding Twitter being an excellent place to ask questions is exactly in line with how we(GM)have found success with Twitter. A few of us will try to ask a few questions via GMblogs a couple of times a week. Sometimes the questions will be GM-specific (what are your thoughts on the 2008 Malibu?), and other times they are just fun in nature (What’s your favorite roadside diner?). It’s really brought the conversations to a whole new level.
Hi Chris,
thanks for this post. It is great and it provides me with some nice arguments for using twitter as I am currently putting together a social/new media tool list and strategy for my departement at university. I will let you know about other purposes to use twitter there.
Manuel
@Bat Masterson - if you click the photo, it will go straight through to the original and the artist’s page. If you go to the bottom of my post, you’ll see a text link that says the photo credit as well. And yes, really great snap.
Nice… thanks for that.
Local wine retailer Bin Ends in Braintree, MA, is using Twitter in an interesting way: They’re hosting online virtual wine tastings. In fact, check out @binendswine tonight (8-21) after 7pm EST to see them and me and some other bloggers and Tweeters tasting wine and sharing our notes.
@Brooks - oh, lots of self-love on Twitter, that’s for sure. But that’s also people trying out a new medium and starting where we all do. With ourselves. As it evolves, we figure out ways to add more value.
@Brooks There is a lot of self evangelism on twitter! Many people are on twitter to build up their own online brands. That said, there are also a lot of people on twitter that share valuable business thoughts and insights that we cannot get from their blogs alone.
Wow Chris! These are really great tips! I’ve been learning so much about the power of twitter when used appropriately. I’ll apply some of these ideas for even more success! Thanks.
As a newby to the twittersphere, I appreciate your tips. Will adhere! I need to build a community for MY BIG DREAM and you provided me with sound advice. Thanks too for subscribing to my twitter.
Wow- now THIS is some powerful discussion about a powerful post. twitter has more than doubled our consulting business segment- and we have never once said what we did as a company or even named the company-in any tweet. We just follow Chris’ lead and try and add value and promo others. great job.