My ex-boss from the company I used to work in asked me about Twitter the other day. He wanted to know why businesses use Twitter if it’s so complicated and if we have Facebook that’s relatively so easy and fun to use.  In fact, this is a question that most people have asked me. So all those guys, this post is for you!

It’s true what they say about social media – tools are not that important. Whether it’s Facebook, Twitter, MySpace or any other, it all really depends on the type of business your company has. You can’t have an account in any of these social media networks and communities just for the sake of it. You first need to have a workable strategy, an objective and a purpose in place before you set about choosing the right instrument.

This being said, my aim in this article is to highlight why and how Twitter is important for your business, especially if it falls in a certain domain which I will identify below. So basically, this article will guide in the second step i.e. selection of a social media community that complies with your strategy once it has been formulated.

Twitter is a very handy tool for companies having anything to do with information. This means that if your objective is to share the information with your audience, you can’t ignore Twitter. But more importantly, it means organizations dealing in industries as IT (that’s an obvious!); education, research; consulting; law; and even healthcare need Twitter for their business. Of course, I’m not saying companies in other verticals can’t use Twitter; but in their case, the purpose for using it might vary. However, if you’re into one of these service industries and you’re not sharing information, you’re going to be in a bit of a problem finding valued customers.

Reason you might ask? The keyword here is ‘Knowledge-Sharing’. Consumers today are no longer happy with your products and services. They are hungry for a good content. They want to learn, read and know more. Smart companies have started to take information as a product and are grabbing the opportunity to offer this product to consumers; free or paid, by creating and sharing valuable information in the form of whitepapers, articles or blogs. This, in fact, has created a new role in organizations and many companies are taking the pains of hiring someone to manage and strengthen their presence on social media networks and blogs. And the best thing about Twitter is that it can work for you even if you don’t own a blog for whatever reasons. Hence, while it’s significant to have your own blog; people would still follow you if you just retweet others’ tweets; provided they are relevant and informational.

There are whole bunch of other reasons to use Twitter; for example, to network in a real-time environment and get real-time data but if your company is dealing with masses of information and not using Twitter, it’s not only wasting its energy but betting on its future growth –and that’s a big bet!

This being said, here’s a word of caution here. When I say people are hungry for information, it doesn’t mean they gleefully munch on it like a bag of popcorn all the time. They need variety; and if you stuff your Twitter with only information, you’ll only succeed in driving away your followers. Twitter is not all that formal and boring and the best thing to do is create a blend of knowledge plus entertainment. This way, you’ll enjoy it the same way you enjoy using Facebook.

Here are a few techniques how businesses utilize the power of Twitter:

1. They keep track of their competitors; what are they up to and what strategies they use to engage their followers.
2. They connect with people in the same vertical as theirs online and offline. An example of offline networking is the use of Tweetups; a term called for meeting people up in their Twitter network face-to-face. This technique, on the whole, is another example of knowledge-sharing but it can also be used to improve relationships in order to convert prospects into customers or just for fun.
3. They conduct Twitter interviews with industry experts and gurus; a new trend emerging that enables you to interview someone live on Twitter.
4. They ask questions and give answers to others’ questions.

Of course, like I said before, there are countless ways in which organizations use Twitter; some very obvious and others the opposite. But my objective was to give you guidelines on how you can create differentiation to make it more engaging and productive along with informational.

Let me know if you know of other techniques that might come in handy for marketers and businesses and share your thoughts about the article.

Cheers!

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