Twit-what?

Twitter: I've talked about it before and gave you some examples of how it was used. But what exactly is it? Who uses it and who should be?

First off, let's start with what Twitter is. Here's a quick video to fill you in:




Great! Now that you've got the basic outline of what Twitter does, let's delve in a bit more.

Just like blogging, people "tweet" because it's fun and simple. They can do it from virtually anywhere. And for a lot of people, they find connections and build networks of people that they never would have come to know otherwise. It's a great to way gain those buddies that you might be able to ask for a favor some time or will be able to tell you the best bagel shop in town when you're traveling to where they are.

Beside building networks, you can also spread the word about things you've learned or sites you've made. You can "tweet" a link out to your followers and they'll go check it out. It's an easy way to get people to your blog or business website.

A couple of the best examples of businesses that use Twitter I've already told you about. Both Comcast and CNN have taken hold of Twitter and used it well. Comcast has gained some great customer service and insight to what their customers are saying. And CNN has been able to get news to people quicker as well as have others help tell them about news. In both cases Twitter has helped these businesses have better customer loyalty.

Even for those businesses that don't want to start their own Twitter account, they can still use it to their advantage. By going to www.search.twitter.com, you can type in a business name, product, or anything you want and search for it. It will bring up all the latest tweets with what you mentioned. By doing this, a business can easily see what people are saying about them.

Twitter is just another way to get your customers involved in what you do. By getting them involved, and especially when they know they are involved, the customers will respond to the company better and want to help with ideas and suggestions.

With any type of company it is a great search tool. Even just for you consumers, it's a fun and useful way to get said how you feel about something, as long as the company ends up listening. So a word to you companies: search twitter, see what people are saying about your, and let them know you're listening. Your customers will appreciate it.

~Connie Jo