Twitter 101 for Business People

By now, you’ve probably already heard of Twitter, an online service that allows members to send each other short messages called ‘tweets’, which can be submitted via SMS, IM, the web or third-party programs and services. The idea is to keep friends and colleagues updated on what you’re up to, and many businesspeople have taken to using it as a means of self-promotion.  People can get your tweets by ‘following’ you, which is akin to adding someone as a friend on other social media networks.

That doesn’t mean that you should sign up for Twitter and immediately begin blasting everyone you know with tweets about your company’s latest sales or products. Twitter is just as much about networking and building a community as it is about marketing.  If you only send out tweets that say things like, “Our XYZ widget has a stainless steel thingamabob and comes in 5 new colors!” people won’t find you very interesting.

So, what exactly do people talk about on Twitter? Virtually everything.  People who use Twitter for business purposes may alert their followers when their company gets some press, link to news stories related to their industry, let people know when they have a particularly interesting new blog post up, keep them up to date on what’s up with their companies, and give people an idea of who they are.  Occasional personal messages are a key to staying interesting to your followers – otherwise, what’s the point?

Another great way to use Twitter as a businessperson is to connect people who aren’t currently following each other.  For example, let’s say a friend you’re following on Twitter sends out a tweet requesting a referral for some kind of product or service, and you know somebody who could help them out, but they don’t currently know each other.  You can use Twitter’s ‘direct messages’ to connect the two.

Here are some examples of business tweets recently seen on Twitter:

“Mommy bloggers: Please tell the world that http://parenting.alltop.com/ is now open.”
“Flight leaves Seattle tonight at 7:30”
“In incredibly important article from Matt: http://tinyurl.com/6eeqf3 Everyone on the hardware side must read this.”
“Can someone recommend a good coffee shop in the River district for a quick biz meeting?”
“just sent a comment spammer a link to our post “how to comment about your company on blog posts without being spammy” http://bit.ly/1oxuJy”
“On Broken Business Process http://tinyurl.com/5ltamv”

Note that some of them use a ‘Tiny URL’.  TinyURL.com turns long web addresses into, well, tiny ones that can fit within the character limit, so you can send followers to specific pages on the web.  Tweets – which are essentially micromessages – can only be 140 characters long (the limit imposed by SMS messaging). This can prove to be a learning curve for the wordy, but you’ll find over time that using Twitter can actually help you become more succinct.

To send a specific follower a message (or respond to a tweet directed at you), simply use the @ symbol followed by the person’s user name.  For example, “@biz Twitter is getting much respect as a news source”.

Want more info on using Twitter for your business? Check out these comprehensive articles: “50 Ideas on Using Twitter for Business”, “Beginner’s Guide to Using Twitter for Business” and “Seven Rules for Establishing a Corporate Presence on Twitter”.