By Lia James
In 160 characters, can you convey what you need to say and have a meaningful conversation? Absolutely. Twitter literally strips communication down to the necessities. Yet some of the best brainstorms, information sharing sessions and content-creation has happened on Twitter’s never-ending communication stream via the use of niche hashtags. The key is using hashtags, because it’s the hashtag that helps users navigate their subjects of interest.
Though somehow, Twitter is still mistaken for a space filled with personal updates. While, yes, some people do still share valueless tidbits, Twitter evolved into so much more than a collection of status updates since its launch in 2006. Today it is a great enabler of networking, research and real-time story or issue monitoring.
Twitter enables networking and knowledge sharing in a way that no other medium does. Having instant communication access to industry leaders, decision-makers, and other influential people has changed the scope of business, politics, and media.
Many companies are quietly using Twitter to gather business intelligence. Others are using it to stimulate business. Being able to see customer trends creates actionable marketing knowledge and it also provides a tool for dynamic customer relations. You can learn about their needs and how to better serve them. It is certainly less costly than the focus group research that was used in the past, and its scope can be so much larger and so easy to repeat. Many organizations also view Twitter as a channel for urgent communications. Remember last year when the East Coast experienced an unusual Earthquake? Updates streamed from reliable government resources to Twitter users faster than the news channel could gather and report the facts in a traditional fashion.
For a few tips on creating a profile and how to best communicate on Twitter, check out these blueprints we found online by @GerryMoran.
Tell us how you’re using Twitter? And if you aren’t, share a little bit about why you aren’t engaged on the medium yet.
