How Your Company Can Use Twitter

Yesterday, I read about a company called Thymer.com that has developed a web-based application for “project management and task planning for people who hate project management and task planning”.

I was eager to try it out, but it’s in closed beta, which means you can only sign up if you have an invitation code. I did a quick search online to see if I could find any, but came up empty. I then decided to post a tweet asking if anyone had an extra code:

This morning, I received a reply tweet from the company itself, @stunf, with my own personal invitation code:

Talk about customer service! The company most likely monitors any tweets that contain their company name or website so they can know what people are saying about their product and to respond to questions or requests such as mine.

If you’re not on Twitter yet, set up an account today at http://www.twitter.com.

I use an application called TweetDeck to view updates from the people I follow, send out tweets, and track mentions of our companies’ names and websites. You can also set up searches for key words or phrases (such as “accountant Orlando” or whatever your business industry is) and then respond to tweets from people who are looking for those products or services. This is a great opportunity to market yourself in a personal way – just be sure to be authentic and helpful. (Here’s a great article on Twitter etiquette.)

You can follow me on Twitter at @CivicLink.

Happy Tweeting!

Update on Tuesday, July 28, 2009 at 12:52PM by Carol Cox

A colleague just passed along this article to me about one company's success with Twitter - http://www.sugarrae.com/commercial-twitter-case-study-revisited/

Comments

[mlgreen8753]

Twitter is a great way to advertise discounts and new product releases. You could also use it in conjunction with your video marketing on Adwido, YouTube, and other video networks.

[diskordo]

Can we use Twitter for educational activities?

[Carol Cox]

Twitter can absolutely be used for educational activities. As a college instructor, I encourage my students to follow me on Twitter because I often tweet articles and news related to the courses I teach on Internet business and marketing. You could also set up a Twitter account with protected updates and use it for a specific class to keep everyone updated, post news, and exchange links. I'm sure there are many more ways to use Twitter in education and we are just beginning to touch the tip of the iceberg!