A quick interview with friends will reveal many folks making use of twitter each and every day. This communication portal allows friends, colleges and folks interested in shared hobbies to talk in a quick, easy and free flowing manner. But you may be wondering, how can this be useful for a business? How can this help me reach my customers? Isn’t it a waste of time?

A month ago we probably would have screamed YES! Stay away! You will waste a huge amount of time on this site! There are so many automated tools out there we’ve questioned whether or not there are real people on there. You can have a service autofollow people, autorespond to people, and even send out automated tweets throughout the day. Are there really people talking on there?

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However, this last month, Bing just started including Twitter in their searches. You can rank with a twitter post! So,we’re rethinking our feelings about twitter. So, we started using it more and more, and it really is a great way to reach people that you couldn’t normally reach. It just all depends on how you use it, and how you make it available to you customers.

To get started with Twitter, just visit the site and set up an account. Using a personal picture is great if you want customers to see the personal side of your business, using a logo is a great idea if you’re working on branding. Getting followers is actually a very easy process. You can use the “Find People” button and search for words that are relevant to your business. For example, as we were looking for people to engage with, we searched for the word mom. When the results came up, we simply looked at profiles to see if someone was a mom, and then followed them! They’ll typically follow you back. Another great strategy is to find you competitors on Twitter and follow people who they are following, and who are following them.

When you are first getting started, think of Twitter like the water cooler at work. You are going there to engage people in conversation, not to promote everything in life that you think is great. If you tweet your product or your site constantly, people are going to ignore you! Watch what people are talking about, and jump into the conversation. A great way to do this is to set up Tweet Deck on your desktop. You can watch conversations in real time, and hop in when you feel you are ready. You can easily reply to people using one icon, or Retweet their comments. Retweeting (or sending out a tweet quoting something someone else just tweeted) is a great way to get conversations started. On Tweetdeck, you will be notified of anyone who retweets a tweet you’ve sent out, it’s good practice to reply to them and say “Thanks for the Retweet!”

When you’re getting started, what kinds of things should you send out? Anything that is 1. Relevant to your goals with twitter 2. You think will start conversations or 3. You think others will find interesting. This includes tweeting links to articles you feel would be interesting to your audience, questions you have for them, or items about your business that you feel would be relevant to their lives. This does not include mentioning that you didn’t get enough sleep last night, or that you’re on your third cup of coffee. There is way too much of this on Twitter, and it just becomes noise!

Here are some other thoughts on Twittering:

Examples of successful twittering

I?ll show you ways you can use Twitter so it is not a waste of time at all. Many businesses, both big and small have been showing incredible innovation and creativeness in the use of reaching their customers using twitter. Comcast currently offers customer support through twitter accounts. Whole Foods Market invites their clients to upcoming company events and recommends food podcasts to their twitter followers. Starbucks talks of new offers to fellow twitterers and participates in discussions about such offerings. Some small businesses are even offering delivery of goods ordered through twitter.

A brief history

Twitter was initially inspired by the idea of away messages sent on profiles merged with the technology of texting. This was an experiment that began in 2006 and exploded in popularity by 2007. The name ‘twitter? comes from the idea that birds speak effortlessly through their constant sounds ? twittering amongst each other. The goal was to allow users to speak constant little messages to one another in order to enhance communication.

What can twitter do for my business?

Twitter is changing how businesses relate to clients. It allows your business to stay connected with your customers. Twitter can help you to share information regarding your company quickly, speak to those who are truly interested in your company, gather feedback and real-time market intelligence, build and maintain relationships with clients, partners and those just hearing about your company. As a customer of other companies, you can use the service to communicate your experience with the customer service. You can relate to them whether you have enjoyed a product, were disappointed in service, or have a relevant question. Many companies accept ideas for future products, offer exclusive discounts or test new ideas through twitter accounts.

How does it work?

Twitter is a way to allow the user to write messages up to 140 characters (the length of this sentence), a count that includes spaces and punctuation. Messages are public to anyone desiring to see your twittering ? the user decides the type of messages he or she would like to receive, making Twitter a recipient driven information network. These messages (Tweets) can be sent from various types of devices, including desktop computers or mobile phones.

The combination of ease of writing such messages along with the speed at which they can be read, this is a powerful way to communicate. This real-time communication has been key in the success of Twitter combined with marketing.

How does my business use twitter?

Twitter allows communication with customers in a casual way not available to most markets today. For example, if you owned a small baking supply store. You could easily search Twitter to find what members were saying about large brands you carry in your store. If some are speaking about their successes with a piece of equipment, you can share tips you?ve also come across with the same items.

Some customers may post tweets talking about minor problems they have encountered with equipment ? problems that they would never bother to bring up to you face-to-face. This can be invaluable in planning future training courses or even allow you the chance to jump in with service ? something you would never have had the opportunity to respond to otherwise. Serious problems can also be brought up on Twitter accounts, allowing you an opportunity to respond sooner than possible in other mediums.

Small businesses are not the only ones benefiting, however. Large companies have opportunities to listen and engage with current and future customers. Those passionate about the company, learning about their products or interested in how customer service will be in a future partner can all find their answers through Twitter.

Twitter is a powerful tool when it comes to shrinking the distance between customers and employees. Some companies place pictures of the employee on call in Twitter accounts, giving a much more personal feel to the encounter. Customers have reported feeling that large companies are more in touch with reality with this service. More open dialogue aids in the satisfaction of customer service offerings.

Where do I go from here?

Maybe you’re thinking some of these claims are too good to be true. Sign up for Twitter yourself and take a peek at what a powerful tool this communication forum can be and how you can use it yourself. This is a new method of relating to others, so be sure to give yourself time to get used to this world of Twitter.

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