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Is Twitter For The Birds?

Written by: Jim Symcox

Article Overview: So you've signed up to Twitter. But you're unsure as to it's value. This article explains how you can get value from the social media scene and Twitter.

Is Twitter For The Birds?

Twitter is a communication tool that enables anyone to tell anyone else who’s interested about things that happen in their life. That can be in a business context, their personal life or a mix.

Twitter limits people to 140 characters for each message (Tweet) they send.

Originally Twitter was mainly aimed at allowing SMS messages to be sent. This part of Twitter has been almost totally overtaken by the enthusiasm for using Twitter to send messages through the Internet.

Twitter is part of the “socialmedia scene” on the Internet. That is where users contribute to a “conversation” that’s channelled a variety of different applications and through the Internet in some way.

Twitter’s taken off because people can quickly inform people of life events, useful information and other stuff so their followers begin to understand them. And if their followers lose interest they can simply “unfollow.”

The authors of the Twitter Handbook blog (Warren Whitelock and Deborah Micek) have identified three phases that people go through with Twitter:

Phase 1: “Twitter is a complete waste of time!”
Phase 2: Using Twitter because people have suggested “it’s a good thing” but still don’t get the point
Phase 3: You pick up some great advice, understand your industry customers better, find an amazing time saver, get a new employee – now you understand Twitter.

Why You Should Use Twitter:

Twitter is a series of conversations you and your company have with your customers and your prospects.

It’s the opportunity to:

· find out exactly what your customers think about you
· service your customers better
· get immediate feedback on new programs and ideas
· ask for new product ideas
· put right mistakes that your company makes
· publish company-related useful information for prospects and clients
· show your expertise and your experts

The key is that it’s immediate feedback and because the message size is so small people are forced to think a little more about what they write.

So don't hesitate start Tweeting today. And follow me in Twitter at jymsym!

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Article Tags: business context, communication tool, complete waste of time, conversations, followers, industry customers, message size, micek, new product ideas, personal life, phase 1, phase 2, phase 3, prospects, sms messages, that enables anyone, time saver, twitter, waste of time, whitelock



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