Twitter is Big for Business | Social Media Today

(Or why businesses need to harness the power of Twitter because their competitors are already doing it)?

Twitter is big business.

I don?t mean that Twitter is doing well and that the company is making money ? it is. What I mean is that Twitter is big for businesses. Businesses have clocked on to Twitter in a big way. A lot of them still don?t really know how it works, but they?re doing it anyway.

Why is this happening? Could it just be a passing fad that will seem ridiculous in a few years? time? Definitely not ? quite the opposite in fact. In a few years, those companies that aren?t using Twitter will seem like dinosaurs. I think it will make companies? current attempts to use Facebook to attract business look old fashioned.

The reason for this is twofold. Firstly, anyone can follow a company (or an individual) on Twitter without having to ?Like? them, which is how Facebook works. Secondly, and this is the magic ingredient of Twitter, anyone can send a direct message to anyone they follow on Twitter, and the recipient will receive it. No personal assistants will intervene to screen the incoming message (unless, perhaps, it?s Barack Obama). The individual you send the message to will read it. They may not always respond, but they?ll read it. (Getting people to respond is an art in itself and I?ll cover that skill in a subsequent article). For now I just want to stress the fact that Twitter is personal ? you contact someone, they receive the message. They want to receive the message because they?re opted in to do so.

Twitter is like e-mail but 100 times better. People don?t give their e-mails out to just anyone. But if someone decides to join Twitter, they are saying to the world, ?I?m here, contact me!?

What all this means for business is an open, global forum for discussion, idea-sharing, pitching, questioning, brainstorming and, if you?re subtle about it, selling. After all, we are in business to make money. No-one is going to devote time and energy to something that doesn?t bring in some kind of return. This is where things get a bit ?unscientific?. If there was a sure-fire way to measure ROI from using Twitter, everyone would be using it. Whoever comes up with such a method is sure to make billions. Not millions, but billions ? the stakes are that high. In the meantime, though, we have to satisfy ourselves with something a bit less concrete. There are no Excel spreadsheets here for the accountants to look at and say, ?OK, Twitter brought in X amount of business, let?s take on some more social media experts.? It just doesn?t work like that.

So how does it work? To be perfectly honest, I don?t think anyone really knows, but it works. There is a new phenomenon happening right in front of our very eyes. It?s not the birth of social media, it?s not Web 2.0 (remember that?) ? it?s something else. It?s a zeitgeist kind of thing. Everyone is doing it. OK, not everyone, but just about everyone that matters to YOU and your business is doing it. And if they?re not, they soon will be. And because everyone that matters is doing it, if you?re not doing it you?re being left behind. It?s as simple as that.

A new way of doing business is evolving, right here, right now. And it?s only going to accelerate. The ins and outs of Twitter: how to follow people, how to get followed, how to make contact with people ? these are all technicalities that anyone can learn in a few minutes (that?s another wonderful thing about Twitter ? it?s just so EASY). It?s the wider phenomenon that is important and that we need to understand. Businesses, business associations, business magazines, analysts, financial experts, CEOs (are they people?) are now using Twitter to communicate, share ideas and, basically, ?do business?.

How do we measure the outcome? It?s a pointless question. You may as well ask how we measure the impact of having a conversation at a business conference. Will we get a deal as a result? Maybe, maybe not, but we?re networking. And that?s all Twitter is ? it?s a new way to network where the entire world is at your disposal and is waiting to hear what you have to say.

The fact of the matter is that the potential, and influence, of Twitter is only just beginning to be realized. I believe we have only seen the tip of the iceberg.

As Chris Bucholtz, editor-in-chief of the CRM Outsiders blog says: ?If your business has any kind of content it wishes to share with the world, Twitter?s virtually a necessity for getting it out there.?

And if you still aren?t convinced that Twitter can help your business, think about some of these facts:

• 88 of the Fortune Top 100 companies now use Twitter daily.
• 66 percent of questions asked on twitter have some commercial intent.
• 80 percent of customer service tweets are negative or critical. It?s therefore essential to be able to respond to any criticism immediately.
• 85 percent of companies are now using twitter as part of their recruitment process.
• Twitter is now being used to predict the movement of stock markets

And some success stories:

• When Cisco launched a new router, it decided to use only social media to market it. This allowed the company to effectively measure the results. ?The campaign was one of the top five most successful campaigns in the company?s history, and it saved the company a six figure sum.
• Comcast started a ?Comcast Cares? Twitter customer service center and attracted 2,700 followers. Many were initially critics of the company but were converted to ardent fans.
• Dell used Twitter to create ?Dell Outlet?, which generated US$3 million revenue in one year from Twitter postings.
• JetBlue set up a Twitter account to have more direct relationships with customers and potential customers, to listen to their complaints, and to understand how to serve them better. They now have over 1.5 million followers.
• Oracle added social networks to its existing communication channels and trained 25,000 partners while reducing costs, boosting satisfaction and increasing PR.
• TeamTurboTax launched a Twitter campaign to answer questions during the key tax season and found its customers were 71% more likely to recommend TurboTax because of their interactions with the company through Twitter.

A final comment from Heather Whaling at Geben Communication: ?My company can trace ~75% of its business back to relationships that initially began on social media, and the *vast* majority of those relationships began on Twitter. That's a pretty compelling business case for me. And, it also helps me understand how to help clients generate business-related outcomes from their social media use. As I always say, time spent online has to be time well spent.?

Source: http://socialmediatoday.com/damian-corbet/398265/twitter-big-business

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