On Monday March 16, a discussion group I’m a participant in on LinkedIn, started a discussion on “Reasons why twitter might be right for your business” and after receiving over 120 comments back, the group organizer distilled the strongest themes into 20 simple points on how companies are gaining an advantage by using twitter. It’s true some companies are still getting familiar with this new tool and see it as a time consuming and useless, and there can be an overload of non-valuable information, but over 80% of comments received indicated the pro’s far outweighing the con’s.
Although twitter is strong in news and social interaction, it is playing a fundamental role in giving a number of companies a competitive edge during challenging economic times by:
– creating access to new customers
– receiving customer and public feedback that leads to more successful sales
– opening networking opportunities with contacts companies wouldn’t have had access to.
20 of LinkedIn’s Strongest Group Discussion Themes from over 120 Comments
Following are the strongest themes many companies said they’re enjoying as they’ve learned how to grasp the culture, grow their followers, and when needed apply external technology tools that simplifies the vast amounts of information.
Here’s how companies have benefited from twitter:
1. Build relationships with people they would have not met before
2. Exposure to lots of new business thoughts, technical ideas and leadership styles
3. Finding new clients by commenting back on others’ tweets
4. Access to thinkers and doer’s one wouldn’t normally interact with
5. Can follow businesses you want the latest updates from with less effort
6. Clients have asked for accounts to be opened so they can get regular updates
7. Can assist Google rankings, sometimes it gets first page results
8. Can assist in getting real questions answered real time during the day
9. Been a great way to gain interactive access with new clients by following their tweets
10. Received access to publicity: radio, TV, press, speaking engagements
11. Allows leaders to connect to followers on a personal level
12. Without being pushy, it can generate buzz/talk about your company
13. Great for bringing traffic to your site if you offer truly valuable information and links
14. Provides a premier marketing tool when used correctly
15. Can be a great resource for getting push information versus searching the web
16. Can act as a news wire for journalist who are looking for story content
17. Can save time by getting the latest news without having to go search for it
18. Enables expansion of your database by removing budget or geography barriers
19. It can increase your market reach if you actively promote your presence on twitter
20. A great way to showcase your expertise and differentiate from competition.
Until Next Time…
Ed
Feel free to comment below if you have any thoughts you would like to share with other readers on this blog.