The twuth about Twitter

by Gale Martin, Director of Marketing and Member Relations

I'm sure you've heard them--the Twitter jokes. Usually they are told by non-Twitter users. TV personality Conan O' Brien joked, “I hear YouTube, Twitter and Facebook are merging to form a super-social media site – YouTwitFace.”

Even President Obama joked that Twitter could replace the Cold War-era red phone after he heard Russian President Dmitry Medvedev also set up a Twitter account.

Whatever you think about Twitter or Twitter jokes, business leaders and marketing communications managers need to be aware of that numbers of Twitter users are growing exponentially. Social media consultant Jeff Pester has predicted that Twitter (now 250M and years later into the game) will beat Facebook (500M) to 1 billion monthly active users.

Why is Twitter growing so fast and why should you care? I mean you have a family business to run, right? You can't be playing with the latest Web 2.0 craze while there's real work to do! One reason Twitter is growing so fast is that its search engine potential is lightning fast. Millions more people are turning to Twitter for real-time information about things that matter to them--news, sports, weather, entertainment. If you've invested in Google Ad words as part of your online marketing strategy, you need to consider that Twitter may outstrip Google in search potential sooner rather than later. Also, Twitter is simple and fast to use in sharing information. It is the most accessible micro-blogging platform currently available.

As to the second question, why you should care, forward-looking businesses know marketing potential when they see it: Consumers are talking about products and services on Twitter, and businesses with a presence on Twitter have the opportunity to respond and engage customers more quickly than ever.


"In the past, companies would hire a market research firm to understand their audience," says Mike Hudack, CEO of Blip.tv, a New York-based video website. "Now we use Twitter to get the fastest, most honest research any company ever heard — the good, bad and ugly — and it doesn't cost a cent," he says.

With Twitter, any business leader can monitor every mention about them and see exactly what people are saying. Smart business people can use it to ramp up their customer service and in turn develop loyal customers. Consider the case of my friend Lauren, who will ever hereafter be a Dunkin' Donuts customer because of their outstanding customer service via Twitter. Read all about Lauren's watershed experience here.

You can even Tweet information about services and products your company is thinking of offering and get instantaneous feedback about whether they're worth your company's time and energy to pursue.

At the very least, you owe it to your family business to know where your current and future customers are hanging out. In part two of "The twuth about Twitter," I'll talk about both B2B's and B2C's are currently using Twitter with customers, consumers, and other publics.