But what is the answer?
It is a much discussed topic in today’s blogs, news, TV and even radio, with Chris Moyles touching on the subject on this morning’s show. And despite my reluctance to follow the masses, even I have given in to writing about it. So just why is Twitter so newsworthy?
For those of you that haven’t yet come across the phenomenon, Twitter is a micro-blogging service, that allows you to tell your ‘followers’ what you are doing in 140 characters or less – a little like updating your Facebook status.
Launched in March 2006 and probably partly due to its ease of use, its rise to fame has been rapid and it now finds itself ranked in the top 600 websites on the planet! (according to Alexa)
Its popularity has spawned a whole host of ‘bi-products’, making it even easier to post your tweets, keep up to date with the people you are following and post pictures. We’ve written about a few of them in our previous post, The Twitter Revolution.
The question that everyone is asking at the moment is – should you tweet?
It’s not a tough question to answer – YES!
Twitter is great fun and a fantastic communication tool, for personal and business use.
At Bluhalo, we find it a great way to keep up with what our colleagues are working on, what colleagues in our other offices are working on and a superb way to knowledge share – one person finds a great new site that can save them time, they post it to Twitter and now we all know about this great new site and we’re all saving time.
So aside from keeping up to date with friends and colleagues, how else can you make use of Twitter?
It brings huge value to online PR. Not only does it give your brand a way to communicate with its public, it also allows you to glean hugely valuable information on public opinion of your company and products, by monitoring brand chatter across Twitter users. Huge benefits have been seen by the famous, with Obama’s election campaign proving to be a seminal moment for both Twitter and social media. It's worth checking out what we did with a Twitter integration to Andy Murray’s website.
I could write about Twitter all day but in short, the main benefits are:
- ease of use
- access to your public
- ability to informally communicate
- contribution to online PR
- brand monitoring
Some argue that Twitter just shouldn’t be used as a marketing tool.
And in a world where your thoughts are published to the world, you'd be forgiven for agreeing with this view. However, a simple degree of censorship when tweeting means you can make the most of this great comms tool without fear.
Here are some general rules which should not be broken and will keep your Twitter experience a pleasant one and not a business faux pas!
- Anyone could read your Tweet. Is it suitable for public reading? Could what you are about to tweet offend someone, especially a client?There’s a great story on this which is worth the read if you have the time.
- It pays to stay positive. If all you do is moan, people won’t want to follow you. Try to keep it upbeat and if you do feel the need to gripe, at least make it comical!
- Keep it interesting. Who really cares what you just ate for breakfast? Keep your tweets interesting and informative. The wider the appeal of your tweets, the more followers you’ll get.
- It’s not a sales tool. It’s great for brand presence and communication, but don’t use it as a tool to hard sell. It will turn your audience off pretty quickly.
- Be genuine. If you’re a celebrity, your fans want to know it’s you and not your PR guy posting to Twitter. If you’re a brand, followers want to know they’re getting the real story and ‘insider knowledge’, not PR spin.
- Know your objectives. Understand why your are using Twitter, whether it is simply for personal communication, building your professional reputation or representing a brand. Confused messages make for confused followers.
So, that’s it! Rather longer than anticipated, but my take on the phenomenon that is Twitter.
Jocelyn
Marketing & Business Development Manager
Twitter @JocelynKirby
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