How Does a Business Use Twitter?

Let’s face it, if you have a business or are in charge of marketing for a company of any size, you need to use any tool available to generate more sales. Is there any company that is ‘perfectly fine’ with their volume numbers and not trying to get better? Even juggernauts like Apple keep the pedal down on finding new ways to attract and keep customers.

So with that in mind, how the heck do you use something like Twitter to help generate anything useful for your company?

A Misunderstood Tool

By far Twitter is one of the most unique and frustrating social media applications available. Tons of people use it even though most of the time it seems useless. By the current rankings as of October Twitter is boasting a robust 140 million users. In that group people like Lady Gaga and Justin Bieber each have about 30 million people following them (30.7 for Gaga and 29.5 for the Biebs).

For the most part musicians and celebrity types fill up the Top 30 Twitter accounts ranked by people following. So there is a dedicated group of people out there listening, tweeting, and re-tweeting constantly as a form of communication and connection.

But how the heck do you tap into that stream? That has been and continues to be the million dollar question.

The Twitter Influence

There is a direct relationship between Twitter and business being driven in a positive or negative way. A recent study showed that as consumers talk about brands, their tweet patterns actually correlate with stock performance. For the most part a high Twitter volume generally resulted in a high stock closing price. While that might seem strange, because most people who use Twitter don’t seem like they would be huge stock traders, it does make perfect sense.

What drives stocks? Usually it is public perception of a brand, confidence in the brand, and talking about prices. Twitter is just another way that information is shared among consumers. As an added bonus it is something that can be tracked and viewed in a historical and current market perspective. Plus Twitter users relate to brand usage more personally compared to other methods of response. This might indicate that the data is more ‘raw’ in essence because of the naturally unfiltered nature of Twitter.

Take Advantage of It

So what can you do? If you are a business that has people talking about it you need to do your best to not only keep the conversation going but also keep it positive. That means:

• Analyzing social data
• Review Tweets that create positive conversations
• Emulating these Tweets yourself (or via friends and affiliates)
• Optimizing future content and announcements in a similar fashion

Even smaller businesses can utilize Twitter. It all starts with having an account and then learning to utilize it. Your goal as a business should be creating a specific brand that exemplifies who you are. From there you can work out into social media outlets to expand your name and reach. For Twitter you should consider:

• Using your account for the latest and most up-to -date company news, industry news, deals, etc
• Making sure your profile is friendly and approachable in a way that matches your brand
• Using it to provide customer support, feedback, and interaction
• Making it part of your networking platform to connect with other professionals and businesses
• Use it as a lead generator
• As a method to link to other social sites you are on like Facebook or YouTube

The Bottom Line

Twitter is another tool in the arsenal of a business marketing plan. Like many social platforms it really becomes a ‘use-it’ or ‘lose-it’ affair after awhile because the longer you wait to jump on the further you get behind the technology. It like a business that thinks their MySpace page is fine and they don’t need to waste time with that ‘Facebook thing’.