Twitter is everywhere. Stephen Fry, Chris Moyles, Jonathan Ross, Phillip Schofield and many other celebrities are talking about it, it’s on the Ten O’Clock news and even the new Number 10 Downing Street website features a Twitter feed!
But despite the world-wide media frenzy, some people (in fact, most non ‘techy’ people) still need a basic introduction. So, just what is it? How do I use it? And (most importantly!) how can Twitter help my business?
So what exactly is Twitter?
I’ve heard all sorts of explanations and read numerous articles about how Twitter works but in the plainest, simplest ‘non-technical’ terms – Twitter is a very simple and quick communication method that fits neatly alongside other communication methods we’re all already using every day including text messages, email and mobile phones. Just get yourself a Twitter identity and soon you too could be ‘tweeting.’
The idea is to post a ‘feed’ of short messages about yourself or your business, each no more than 140 characters long. This can be as simple as saying what you’re working on or having for lunch but it can be used for so much more. At Mixd, we’ve started using our Twitter feed as a way of informing clients and customers what’s going on in the office, about new business wins and other exciting news from the Mixd team. We’ve even advertised job opportunities… with instant results!
Twitter can seem trivial, and certainly it doesn’t yet appeal to everyone. But from our perspective it really does have some amazing marketing potential. For instance, just recently I ‘tweeted’ (i.e. updated my Twitter status) to let friends know that I was heading to North Wales to go mountain biking. Within moments of posting this update I had a response from a local hotel in the North Wales area, wishing me a great day’s biking and suggesting that if I needed somewhere to stay that night they had a room available, at a great ‘last minute’ price!
Now that’s powerful stuff!
