Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Twitter - Is It For Your Business?

Everyone says you’ve got to be on Twitter. Although many aren’t sure why. Nor is it clear what Twitter will be when it grows up.

Here’s the scoop and what it means to you.

Twitter still doesn’t have a business model, which is ultimately necessary to ensure longevity. It’s likely to be acquired by a larger company and/or morph into something different from what it is now. If it doesn’t, it may not be around for long. Perhaps this creates implied risk in the minds of users.

Why might that be the case? Research now shows the retention rate of users, which is the percentage of last months users that return this month, is lower than other social networking sites and suggests people just aren’t sure what to do with it or aren’t finding value in it. It’s sort of a wild west really. There are side shows, snake oil salesmen (& women), neighborly discussions, con artists, people of

Clark Stanley's :en:Snake Oil :en:Liniment. Be...Image via Wikipedia

ill repute, legitimate businesses selling or doing customer support, and so on - all tweeting away like mad. It’s pretty noisy all the time. There are dozens of tools and 3rd party support sites that have sprung up around Twitter because the Twitter programmers made access easy and open. Some of these 3rd parties do have business models. Most, if not all, have a free element which, as you’ll see, is to our - the users - benefit.

Given the lack of clarity though, what’s all the fuss about? Simply, a place that millions of people visit everyday and where many engage in actual discussion, sharing information, etc has something very compelling about it. I’ve spent a lot of hours trying to get my hands around Twitter and some of it’s surrounding 3rd party tool sites. In the process I discovered some of the best and worst of it all.

The question is, does Twitter hold any value for your organization? The answer is: yes it can, if used correctly. Remember the goal is to help you build relationships with your Results Drivers.

This post is adapted from and concludes in Grow! - The eCourse, Chapter 5.

So, if you are on the fence check about Twitter out the chapter 5 & the rest of the course for FREE by signing up over on the left column <<<<<

Make your days great - by choice!

Wes
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