The World of Twitter

Image via CrunchBase

‘Twitter’, according to a dictionary definition, is “a short burst of inconsequential information”.

Twitter the internet company is now worth about 5 billion dollars, which is by no means an inconsequential figure.

Twitter should absolutely be part of your online marketing strategy.  Use of social media needs to go hand in hand with your website.  Internet Agency can give you expert advice on how to best utilise social media, including Twitter.

 History

Twitter was started in 2006 by a trio of programmers who were trying to reinvigorate a dying podcasting business.  One of them had the idea to connect a group of people on their mobile phones using text to communicate information (eg. that he was at a good nightclub).

The first ever tweet?  “Just setting up my twttr”.

Tweet 38 was “Oh, this is going to be addictive”.

Image via CrunchBase

It turned out to be addictive alright with over 140 million tweets now sent every day from over 200 million Twitter users.  This incredible growth is attributed to news media coverage – a study has shown that the more news stories appeared about it, the more people adopted it.  For example, it gained a lot of coverage (and users) when Ashton Kutcher challenged CNN to a race to see who could be the first to gain 1 million followers.

For the record, Kutcher won by half an hour.

How does Twitter work?

At the heart of Twitter are the short bursts of information called ‘tweets’.  Each tweet can be 140 characters in length but you can also embed information into your tweets such as photos and videos.

Using twitter doesn’t necessarily mean that you have to tweet yourself; you can simply look at other people’s contributions (what’s known as being a ‘follower’) and keep track of information streams that interest you.

People often use ‘hashtags’ at the beginning of their tweets to categorize them.  So, for example, Internet Agency may say “learn how to use social media with us #social media” and followers can click on the hashtag link to see tweets of a similar theme.

Twitter and business

Getting the best out of Twitter essentially involves engaging in a dialogue with your customers.  People come to Twitter to find out the latest information so your business should try its best to give it to them (through regularly sharing information, special offers and photos).  At the same time, you have to listen to what’s being said about your business and its products and services.

Twitter also gives you the opportunity to ask for responses from your customers and gain insight into how you are perceived.  Conversely, you should always respond to any feedback you receive.

Something else to think about is what is your ‘voice’ on Twitter?  What tone and vocabulary will best suit your business?

Let Internet Agency show you how Twitter can work for you.  Internet Agency’s comprehensive web development service covers all aspects of web development including web design, e-commerce, Google Analytics and more.  Contact us now for a free website audit.