Reardon Industrialist Blog
| What Are You Doing? |
| Blogging Industrialist | |||||
| Tuesday, 16 June 2009 15:42 | |||||
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“Twitter is a service for friends, family, and co–workers to communicate and stay connected through the exchange of quick, frequent answers to one simple question”: What are you doing? In 2007 there were 111 micro-blogging platforms; Twitter being one of the most widely used with approximately 32 million users! According to research mentioned in the Wall Street Journal this increased from 2 million just a year ago. These real time social platforms open up a channel for unique communication created out of the inquizzitive human nature of ‘what is everybody else doing.’ It is a simple and user-friendly personal blogging tool that gives you a way to stay in touch with family, friends, or co-workers. Its also a helpful tool to find old acquaintances, meet new ones and network...all of this can be done via ones pc or mobile device. Twitter lets you be in charge. “Twitter’s most productive use has been for businesses that want to peer into the minds of their customers, reading their immediate reactions to a product”. For instance, Starbucks uses suggestion boxes in their retail locations. Today, their customers can post ideas, suggestions, or complaints on Twitter. Starbucks now has employees dedicated solely to responding to their Twitter online community, they also continue to track and research what is being written - good, bad or ugly, within the Twitter site. It’s a way into their customers minds without traditional means of market research. Government agencies of our own have had success as well. The Center for Disease Control began experimenting with various social media three years ago. YouTube, podcasts, and Twitter feeds have been utilized to inform the public about the up-to-the-second news on the H1N1 virus. During the timeframe from April 22 - May 4, the CDC attracted 99,000 followers on its Twitter feed "CDCemergency," providing breaking updates on flu-related issues. “Janice Nall of the CDC's Center for Health Marketing says the agency is interested in employing any social media that people use.” Along with multinational corporations, some of the more followed names on the service are: Ashton Kutcher, Barack Obama, Coldplay, Dell, NPR, M.C. Hammer, Oprah, Ryan Seacrest, U.S. Congress and Zappos. Obviously, with such explosive growth Twitter will continue to be a platform that companies will be able to explore more unique methods of research and marketing by creating online communities that follow them. Because so many millions of consumers are hopping on the micro-blogging train, it can only benefit companies to grow and build brands by sending real time data via their Twitter sites to keep their customers updated. I foresee continued results with Twitter as a business tool; as long as companies remember this is a personal networking tool, NOT another place to overload our minds with unwanted advertising and spam.
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