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What’s the business value of twitter?

Is Twitter valuable to your business? Yes.

Well, maybe. Tweets such as “staring at my navel,” “contemplating the universe” or “having a bath” don’t do much for a business (or for many individuals that I can see). But riding the river of tweets (or “twiver” as Doc calls it) is good for several things:

  1. News - Not to mention an interesting tool for data-mining news.
  2. Commentary - Yours or others. Yes, commentary is news’ evil twin, but hearing what other people think is a Good Thing. Following it blindly, not so much… I also like using it for quick thoughts and to take the pulse of my network.
  3. To do lists - Not my first choice, but Twitter does provide One Way To Do It.
  4. Marketing - To a degree. Linda Bustos had some great points on how to use twitter to drive e-ecommerce. I’ve grown more enlightened since first worrying that twitter might equate to interruption marketing, but you still need to tread lightly. Josh Bernoff used twitter to promote his latest Forrester report, which I’ll review later this week.
  5. Keeping up with friends - OK, maybe you want to know your friend is having a bath. That’s your business, now, isn’t it?

Jeremiah Owyang answered the value of Twitter question supremely well - on twitter, no less. Lee Odden of The BigList refers to Twitter as a many-to-many form of IM. Also on Twitter. Mike Moran is on the fence, but he’ll come around. As someone whose mantra is “Do It Wrong Quickly,” twitter was made for Mike. And it was definitely made for business.

Sphere: Related Content

Related posts:

  1. How Twitter can save your life as well as your business
  2. Small Business Link Digest - February 22, 2008
  3. What the Marines can teach you about social media marketing (Guide to Small Business E-commerce Strategy)
  4. Twitter will make us the Borg. Resistance is futile. And that’s OK.
  5. Mike Moran on Toyota’s - and every other business’ - social media “problem”

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 8th, 2008 at 10:51 pm and is filed under Social Media. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

6 Responses to “What’s the business value of twitter?”

  1. Mike Moran Says:
    January 10th, 2008 at 10:21 am

    Hey Tim, today I got my first blog post idea from someone Twittering about something. Maybe I am getting the hang of it.

  2. Tim Says:
    January 10th, 2008 at 4:19 pm

    No doubt, Mike. It sneaks up on you that way. When I first started, I thought it was a big useless time sink. Actually, I still think it’s a time sink. I just don’t think it’s useless anymore.

  3. Book Review of the Week-ish: POST study, Forrester Research Says:
    January 18th, 2008 at 5:38 am

    […] cool new technology” without thinking first about what value it has to their customers. Your business can use Twitter in a number of ways. But that doesn’t mean you should in all cases. Josh just happened to […]

  4. Top Content in January Says:
    February 6th, 2008 at 9:52 am

    […] Many folks also seemed interested to learn about the business value of Twitter. […]

  5. Smart companies use Twitter. Here’s how. Says:
    April 7th, 2008 at 4:34 am

    […] Michael Arrington at TechCrunch has great piece today about Comcast using Twitter to as an early warning system. Add this to your list of ways to get business value from Twitter. […]

  6. How Twitter can save your life as well as your business Says:
    April 28th, 2008 at 12:43 am

    […] been tracking the business value of Twitter on thinks repeatedly. Now CNN has a story highlighting its power in a life-or-death situation. […]

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