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Twitter goes business

Guest post by: Rob Lawson

Article Overview: Social media is answering the call of the business world with social networking sites creating features specifically to assist and benefit businesses. With businesses' use of social media on the rapid increase, it was surely simply a matter of time before social networking sites began to adapt features of their sites to make things that little bit easier for companies to use social media for their business online. Social media platforms are becoming more of a viable, reputable business option rather than an online hobby reserved only for those particularly internet-savvy business folk.

Twitter goes business

Social media is answering the call of the business world with social networking sites creating features specifically to assist and benefit businesses. With businesses' use of social media on the rapid increase, it was surely simply a matter of time before social networking sites began to adapt features of their sites to make things that little bit easier for companies to use social media for their business online. Social media platforms are becoming more of a viable, reputable business option rather than an online hobby reserved only for those particularly internet-savvy business folk.

Twitter takes the lead

Twitter has recently announced that their Business Centre feature is under testing. Hand selected businesses are currently trialling. Called the ‘Twitter Toolkit', the main feature lets businesses accept direct messages to their accounts from people they are not following. It allows businesses to communicate directly with clientele or customers without having to go to the trouble of ‘following' them back first. This looks to be a huge help for businesses wishing to use Twitter as one of their key social media outlets - customer service situations such as feedback and complaints can be dealt with online without the business having to follow everyone that wants to ask a question. Another feature is the Contributers tab, which allows businesses to add multiple users to the one account, allowing those users to then all be able to tweet from the same account. This will be a huge help when it comes to collaborative communication, both internally and with the public.

Access granted

Other business orientated online programs and websites are using allowing easier access and maintenance of social media, as we realise that this is one fad that is isn't going anywhere anytime soon. VerticalResponse, a popular online content management application, created a social media functionality feature at the beginning of the 2010 that enables small business customers to share their email marketing content with popular social networks. Using this, you can publish your mass business emails to Twitter or Facebook, both saving time and getting your message out there in mass and more easily. You can ‘cross-promote' your news across a variety of social media networks. Users simply have to link their social media accounts to their VR account, and by clicking a ‘Share email' button, a URL will be posted on their social media accounts linking back to mass emails. VerticalResponse obviously realise the social media is no longer simply a novelty, but an integral part of many businesses' marketing campaigns.



What can we expect in the future?

Due to this now ‘mainstream' acceptance of social media as a powerful, persuasive business tool, the future will no doubt will more social media applications creating their own business features, or adapting to suit the needs of business users. At the moment, social media is being used in businesses mainly in the marketing and public relations capacities, with sales and collaborative communication still only used by some. Studies have also found that interestingly, the smaller the company, the more likely that social media is being used as a business tool. This is perhaps due to that fact that larger organisations have the ability and finance to use other resources, whilst SMEs may find the inexpensive social media option the way to go. Whatever the reason, there is obviously much room to improve to attract bigger businesses to social media usage, and that will surely contribute to the change and adaptation of social media for businesses.

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Article Tags: business online twitter



Related Forum Posts
Re: Twitter vs Facebook - I use Facebook pages for Business and rarely ever use Twitter. I hace lost count of the no. of Hotels that I have visited, regarding their marketing campaigns, that may have 5k Facebook Fans and only 100 followers on Twitter. It is a lot more difficult to engage with people on Twitter and thus harder to gain traction. If you are a business like Nike, then Twitter is great, but if you are an SME, then focus on Facebook or LinkedIn (if you are providing a professional service.) You can always have your Facebook feed directly in to Twitter, so you can have a presence on both, but do the work on one. Also check out ping.fm for managing campaigns - it is a free tool, and a great time saver.
Re: Facebook v Twitter - I've always liked and used Facebook more than Twitter. But I have started using Twitter a little more often lately, and I don't use FB much for business, but I do still get on FB much more than Twitter.
Unconventional Twitter Ideas - Hi guys, As some of you may or may not know, I follow EvanCarmichael.com authors on Twitter for a multitude of reasons but mostly to listen and to stay engaged with our authors' business. With that said, I'm really looking to expand our reach on Twitter (maybe to potential authors/small business owners/entrepreneurs etc.) or to improve on existing relationships with followers. Have you guys heard of any businesses that are using their Twitter in an unconventional sense?
Re: How to Use Twitter to Market Products? - Thanks everyone for posting that link to the youtube video and posting tips on marketing your products/services on Twitter. Those are all great tips. I was wondering how people used Twitter to market their business. I use Twitter. You can follow me at @griffinsdesigns.
Re: How To Twitter for Business Challenge - I think it sounds like a good idea for bringing in new members and getting the word out about the forum a little more. I wish I could add a step or two but I am not a big user of Twitter and still don't see much use in it as far as business is concerned. I'll be curious to read the information for helping build a business through Twitter.


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