So it seems that Twitter is getting hip to what’s going on with businesses and realizes that there are a lot of brands wanting to know how to take advantage of this microblogging application. To help businesses out, the great folks at Twitter have put together a “How To” website that gives a beginner’s tutorial for how businesses can use the site. But there’s a lot more than simple elementary advice. To be truly valuable for companies, this website includes some case studies, resources and even a dictionary to help you understand the terminology.
I think that what’s helpful about this website is the ability for new brands to see the entire process on how to use Twitter. It’s not just some random website where you have to search for help. It’s a step-by-step tutorial that will give you a simple explanation about what’s going on. One thing that author and founder of public relations firm FutureWorks, Brian Solis, noted was that in the beginning, executives were often left wondering what Twitter’s usage for business is. This helpful guide sets out to answer those type of questions:
Twitter is a communications platform that helps businesses and their customers do a number of useful things. As a business, you can use it to quickly share information with people interested in your company, gather real-time market intelligence and feedback, and build relationships with customers, partners and other people who care about your company. As an individual user, you can use Twitter to tell a company (or anyone else) that you’ve had a great–or disappointing–experience with their business, offer product ideas, and learn about great offers.
First you’re going to learn about the purpose of the website (that’s the homepage). Then you’re going to move onto understanding what Twitter is before learning the lingo behind this platform and how it’s used. From there you’re now able to move to read about some best practices for how to use Twitter right before reviewing some successful case studies of brands using the platform for their campaigns. And if you need any more information after reading the case studies and getting an introductory view of Twitter, the creators of this website have offered up some additional resources for you to take a look at.
But if you’re not getting enough information just by understanding what Twitter is, then relax, as the folks at Twitter have also included the case study section that gives you examples of what other brands have done with the platform. They’re not all Fortune 500 companies and many of their solutions can also be tailored towards your brand usage if you want. So check out what companies like Dell, Etsy, Pepsi, American Apparel, Current and JetBlue is doing right now with the technology.
But wait…does that answer one of the fundamental questions about how do businesses use Twitter? Sure, you might understand what Dell, Etsy, Pepsi and all the brands listed in the guide do with Twitter, but what else can Twitter be used for? Simple. Twitter connects you to your customers right now, in a way that was never before possible. By that I mean that it allows you to monitor what people are saying online about you. Imagine Twitter as one giant conversation happening at a large event. Sure, you’re not going to be able to follow every single thing at first, but through some clever searches as you browse around, you’re able to hear conversations about your brand, product or company. That’s your time to listen and respond – it’s all about immediacy and real-time engagement – that’s what Twitter does for the customer service relationship.
So now you’re happy to know that there’s a simple Twitter for Business guide out there…what next? Well you need to share this information with your colleagues and anyone else that might have an impact on the Twitter usage in your brand. Once everyone understands what this Twitter thing is, the better your interactions with your customers will be. This website is very user-friendly in that it also offers itself as a downloadable PDF or you can print the site out in its entirety to share with whomever you wish.
If you’re a brand eager to understand what’s going on with Twitter, I’d highly recommend looking at this website first and then engage your customers. This is a really helpful “tutorial” of sorts that will give you insights that until now, you were left to figure out by yourself or perhaps left to scour the web looking for answers. It’s all here.
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