Do you get Real Business Benefits from Twitter?

By | May 4, 2010 at 1:36 am

If you use Twitter, do you consider it a social tool or business tool? If it’s a business tool, what results have you got?

«
»
  • Joan Barkley

    I have certainly found Twitter useful, and we have got at least one new customer from it (I run a small catering company). But it does take a lot of time, and Im not comfortable giving it to someone else. Probably the real reason I do it is that I enjoy it :-)

  • tonyhollingsworth

    Ross,
    For me, Twitter works for business and social benefit. I see business and social increasingly merging in the way communicate and work together, particularly around tools like Twitter. The results I get are tangible: an ability to scale up my relationships with a great many interesting people than has otherwise been possible, and the opportunities that brings. Here comes that word again ,serendipity, which can be leveraged for great benefit particularly using Twitter.

    Here's a couple of links of interest.

    My blog post about creating serendipity and building community on Twitter:
    http://tonyhollingsworth.wordpress.com/2008/11/…

    Controlled Serendipity liberates the web:
    http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/01/22/adding…

    Some recent discussions worth reading on my friend Robin Dickinson's blog. Have a look at my comments on this post:
    http://www.radsmarts.com/2010/04/10-ways-to-sha…

    Robin then posted a follow up to my comments, generating discussion around the merging of social and business using tools like Twitter and the “tweetups” or coffee mornings that arise from it:
    http://www.radsmarts.com/2010/04/the-new-busine…

    Great to see this forum Ross, thanks for bringing it to us.

    Cheers,
    Tony Hollingsworth

  • tonyhollingsworth

    Agree Joan
    I find the best approach is to watch and learn how others are using it, adpapt it to your style, and take it on yourself. Althought handing it over to someone else can work in certain ways, for small business I believe they should manage it themselves, with some initial coaching and follow up.

    Cheers
    Tony Hollingsworth

  • http://www.BluewireMedia.com.au/blog Adam Franklin

    Hi Ross, Tony & Joan,

    I certainly use Twitter as a business tool AND a social tool. A recent example of using it as a business tool is when we used it to promote our web strategy workshop. We had a competition where a someone who retweeted could win a free ticket. This helped spread the word to plenty more people than we could've reached alone. And importantly it lead to ticket sales!

    Plus we've had candidates apply for jobs that they've learnt of via twitter conversations.

    Socially, I've met several industry colleagues via Twitter (& yes actually met up in person and occasionally on skype!)

    Here's an article on our blog highlighting how Netregistry used Twitter as a business tool.
    http://www.bluewiremedia.com.au/blog/2009/10/co…

    Great forum too guys!

    Cheers,
    Adam

  • http://www.rossdawsonblog.com Ross Dawson

    To answer my own question with a quick data point – right now the vast majority of the registrations to our Getting Results with Crowdsourcing event (http://bit.ly/b2Mn2J) have come from Twitter – half from my tweets and the rest from those of the speakers. This despite promotion to a significant email list and other channels. People often find short events of interest on Twitter, though it may be different for major conferences. So Twitter is absolutely a great business tool.

    Though I have to say I do feel a real sense of community by being on Twitter – that's what really keeps me engaged.

  • http://nicholasjdavis.wordpress.com Nicholas Davis

    I find it useful professionally to monitor news, check for trends and find new content. Both keyword searches and lists work well for this. It's a serendipitous medium that allows filtering – perfect for expanding your horizons whilst being focused on what you are actually looking for.

  • http://www.hdactioncamera.com.au/ go pro australia

    Bussines benefit from twitter..

  • http://www.mgtdesign.co.uk/web-design-northampton/ Kelton

    Wish I’d found this blog earlier. Some really great posts.

  • http://www.totallyseo.co.uk/ Yarout

    You have written great article on affiliate marketing.Thanks for sharing such nice article.