When 'tweeting' becomes relatively useful?

[Jigsaw CCS]

On a personal level, twitter has made me a very, very happy man.

After 'following' twenty or so of my favourite design and marketing magazines/agencies/companies/blogs, I now have instant access to hundreds of links to articles and news posts of relevance to my interests.

On a business (or at least marketing) level, I'm still waiting to see the opportunities reveal themselves.

It's a great resource ***snip***

***snip***

So, I will pose a question
– Has anyone had a positive experience with twitter, specifically with connecting with other local business, and do you know of ways to better utilise the website to work for you rather than taking a 'wait and see' approach?

I look forward to your comments and discussion!

– Daniel

[Paragon]

On a business level I've made contact with several potential manufacturers, suppliers and outlets through using Twitter. I've had to be pro-active rather than wait for people to come to me.

[Jigsaw CCS]

Hi Steve, thanks for your POV.

Since this post, I've found a site called twitip which has some good advice on generating more followers to your twitter page.
The general consensus seems to be - get involved on other peoples pages and link to it from existing social media, as well as making sure your tweets are interesting and topical.

When you mention being pro-active, could you expand on the types of tools / tactics you found to be successful?

Thanks,

Daniel

[Paragon]

Follow everyone in your market/field, search on relevant keyphrases and try and get involved with any relevant discussions. Always helps to have keyphrases in your tweets.
We don't use any tools, just spend a few minutes each day or so looking at whats going on etc.
Twitter is not our main source of marketing, just another useful string to the bow.

[Richardvc]

I agree with Steve, Twitter is very useful but only as another string in the bow.

It does work and is liked a lot by the search engines.

Richard
***url snip***

[PrismTechWales]

We are starting to use twitter as a promotional tool, so we are running special offers and competitions for our followers. Not sure yet how successful this will be but its worth a try

[virtuallysorted]

I think there is going to be a major trend this year in tools which convert Twitter followers into actual clients - perhaps by targeting them with offline media or simply by offering exclusive offers via Twitter.

It's one of Twitter's strengths compared to say Google Buzz or MySpace or Facebook.

We're currently beta testing some of these tools and we're getting some interesting results!

[Richardvc]

As the internet changes the focus will shift from one area to another, getting traffic to your site is really quite easy once you have mastered some basic skills. The next is converting them to business which is another skill entirely.

The great think about using the Internet is that the world is becoming better connected and of course you change, adapt or alter at little cost.

For my firm, which works with Proffesional Services firms there is a far longer lead in time, sometimes a sales funnel can be months long,therefore more work needs to be done to engage them over the longer term and tools like twitter make it very easy.

Richard

[Ryan T-Mobile]

Twitter is a great tool for building a relationship with a prospective contact. If you use it alongside your LinkedIn account, you can have the new contact see your list of skills, recommendations, and what you offer without looking like you're making a hard sell. Only problem is, it can really take over your life.

[Mike Seddon]

I think one of the true values in Twitter is using it to listen to whats going on in your market space.

I use Tweetdeck for that.

I created a video showing my technique a few months back (where does the time go!)

Here it is:

Twitter as a Serious Business Tool

Cheers
Mike