Growing your business with Twitter can seem overwhelming to anyone who is new to the social media scene (all those hastags!). But in this follow up post to my first Twitter musing, I want to reiterate how powerful a platform Twitter can be for the strategic business builder.
But first, a quick story.
As a big time college football fan, having the ability to record more than two games at a time is important to me, so when Comcast rolled out its new Xfinity X1 Platform, I was excited for the new technology. With this device, it’s now possible to record up to 4 shows at once while watching a fifth and even though I’m not a huge TV watcher, I do like having the chance to watch parts of many games, on my own schedule.
As with all new programs, there are bound to be bugs and the X1 Platform is no exception. So one night during a particularly frustrating session with trying to set up future game recordings, I took to Twitter and complained. Within minutes, Matt from Customer Service had responded to my tweet, wanting to know if I was still having problems.
I replied that yes, I still was and he followed up with a generic “sorry to hear that — let us know how we can help you going forward” response. While they didn’t solve my problem completely (the system still has bugs that compromise show recordings), I was impressed that someone responded in real time and acknowledged my frustration. Being able to vent publicly definitely took the edge off, and perhaps instigated a meeting or two over at Comcast to address the glitches in their recording system.
This experience further convinced me that Twitter can be a very powerful tool when used according to your business’s overall strategy. If Comcast is smart, it will take my comments, along with all the others out there, and work on fixing the problems so its customers remain happy and loyal.
Search Really Is the Secret
As previously mentioned, Twitter is a phenomenal place to conduct a focused search related to your current interests. There are the obvious celebrity trends (i.e. the recent Miami Dolphins scandal), but Twitter is so much more than elite athletes remarking on the latest game stats or Hollywood stars promoting their brand of fame.
Because it’s designed as a microblogging site, the opportunity to tell and shape stories is endless. Indeed, when approached strategically, Twitter can yield some phenomenal results for the business builder including:
- Launching a new product or service
- Finding thought leaders to connect with in your industry
- Real-time articles related to your area of expertise
- Everyday thoughts about current events, specific companies, or people
- Photos that are relevant to your business
- Insights about headlines, politics, events, etc.
- Engaging people with your brand
With more than half a billion registered users on Twitter, opportunities to connect, converse, and even convert abound for businesses of all sizes and shapes. The number of case studies about companies using Twitter successfully is growing every day, further proving that 140 characters or less really can make a dent in the universe.
How are you growing your business with Twitter?
