Making a Business Case for Twitter

October 30, 2008 | Twitter | Connie

I’m at the Social Media Strategies Conference in San Francisco. Yesterday Twitter was mentioned often so I offered to present some business cases for using it. You can watch the conference being live streamed.

Twitter has become a valuable tool for business use. There are so many opportunities to leverage it’s capabilities in a way that is relevant & provides value.

Customer Relations
- @netsolcares @comcastcares
Crisis Communications
- opportunity to respond immediately before it escalates to blogs & other channels
Crowd Sourcing
- product development,
- survey customer satisfaction
Build Brand & Communications
- offer assistance – How can we help you? @ChrisBrogan style
- brand presence
Lead Generation
- new markets
Customer references – star items – refer people to the URL of favorites
- I made one for Techrigy SM2
- how to create it
  - use search.twitter.com to search for pertinent tweets
  - open tweet & star them which will propogate the favorites
Announce new services, coupons & information
- @digitalscrap
- no push marketing please
Professional Networking

Laura Fitton @pistachio has a comparison chart for the various microblogging platforms.

For searching past twitter conversations: search.twitter.com
For monitoring twitter: tweetbeep.com (there is also tweetscan, but it’s not as good)

This has replaced my Google Reader for RSS feeds. By monitoring the tweets in my topic area (ex: social media monitoring and my own name including misspellings) they gather the latest URL’s pertinent to my area of interest

If you’re just getting started with Twitter I have a post, Twitter 101, with links to resources for getting started. I also provide consulting in the areas of social networking & branding. Feel free to email me at conniebensen @ gmail.com

And definitely follow me on Twitter! @cbensen

What business value does Twitter provide you with? And what are your success stories?

Here’s a book that’s soon to be published that has my endorsement – I’ve read parts of it. (It’s written by a Minnesotan, so it has to be good! @jojeda )

Twitter Means Business: How Microblogging can Help or Hurt Your Company

9 Responses to “Making a Business Case for Twitter”

Twitter: @cbensen
Connie Bensen says:

October 30, 2008 at 11:21 am

a Direct Message offering a suggestion: have your tweeps read your media stories and if they like, send a letter to the edtor. Published letters generate more PR.
Twitter: @cbensen
Connie Bensen says:

October 30, 2008 at 11:34 am

more from Twitter:
jeaston1 @cbensen get your real world networking partners to join and have them talk each other up

StephaneLeeLive @cbensen I see twitter as a front-end to customer service platforms. Ask a question on twitter @company or get response.
Twitter: @cbensen
Connie Bensen says:

October 30, 2008 at 11:42 am

more DM’s
Twitter for biz: in the running for an award? Have your tweeps submit testimonials on your behalf.

promotions work for some brands: @amazonmp3, @wholefoods, @zappos examples

@bestbuycmo uses it to: get a pulse on the market/customers directly & to demonstrate bestbuy’s commitment to social media

I’ve used it as a pop-up to generate interest in client’s events and conferences

last one I promise: value of research using search, looking at sentiment, what customers are thinking about your brand and competitors.

check out @Warrenss blog with lots of ideas on Twitter

use hash tag example #sms08
- to have discussion out in the audience
- gather questions
- aggregate thoughts of attendees
- remote attendance in the back channel
- stimulate discussion in the twittersphere
mjcarter says:

October 30, 2008 at 1:29 pm

I’m glad someone presented the business side/cases for Twitter at a conference!

Personally Twitter has been an amazing (business) networking tool. I’ve been able to turn on TweetDeck and check in once in a while. New relationships have started when someone mentions a similiar interest.

My best success stories are reconnecting with people I know and like because of Twitter. Tweets give people a reason to reconnect without having to email our database with “hey, what are you up to?”

You know. And then you can connect.
Peg Corwin says:

October 31, 2008 at 12:46 am

Hi Connie,

I’m really having a hard time getting enthusiastic about Twitter. Seems to me this is mostly relevant with national brands and companies. As I understand it, if I wanted to use Twitter in Chicago I would have to search out individuals in small business in Chicago to follow, and then hope that the follow me back?

Every time I check my Twitter (pcorwin), I mostly see info about pizza people are eating and planes the missed. Too low a signal to noise ratio to interest me much now.

What am I missing here?
Twitter: @cbensen
Connie Bensen says:

October 31, 2008 at 8:23 am

Hi Peg,
Yes, there is a lot of noise too. Next week when I get back I will write a post on some methods to use tweetbeep.com to find potential customers & likeminded people.

I’m also getting requests for the archived presentation. Once that is available I’ll post it.
marksilva says:

November 11, 2008 at 7:01 pm

Good post Connie. We call this Return On Twitter or ROT for short.
Jenny says:

November 17, 2008 at 10:46 pm

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Peg Corwin says:

August 5, 2009 at 7:06 am

Hi Connie,

Just stopping by to let you know that I have moved my post on Twitter to:

http://pegcorwin.com/2008/12/52-links-on-twitter-for-business-with-brief-descriptions/

Would you like to update your link?

Peg