Using Twitter as a marketing tool.

Twitter is one of those internet phenomenons that have really taken off in the past year or so. Ask the average person last year what Twitter is and they may have given you a sideways glance; ask that same person today and they will be able to tell you exactly what the site is: Microblogging.

As a business owner, there are ways to use Twitter to your advantage. One of the most publicized ways is to use it as a marketing tool. Then again, I suppose if your business is on Twitter that is really the only way to use it, right?

But, can Twitter be truly effective as a marketing tool for your company?

The answer is yes and there are many ways to use it to your advantage.

The first thing you can use Twitter for is to find out if anyone is talking about you. Even if you don’t have an account yet, you can search through “tweets” to see if someone is saying anything about you or your company. There are so many messages being posted daily that, if you have a company that people visit either in person or online, surely you will be mentioned at one point or another on the site.

The second thing that you can use Twitter for is to release promotion information and news about your company. Because of the 140 character limit on your tweets, you should link the news and information to a page where you can give everyone the real story.

One of the newest ways Twitter is being used by companies is customer service. There are companies that are tired of being seen in a negative light and are really ready to do something about it. This is where Twitter comes in. When someone tweets about the company, the company responds and actually tires to fix the situation. This has happened a more than a few times so far and I’m sure that this trend will continue to grow. If you wanted to participate in this trend, then it will likely get positive publicity for your company.

The downside is that if your company is seen as spamming Twitter or you have a bot doing all of your Tweeting, then its likely you won’t have quality followers. No one wants to read the same tweets on a daily basis linking to your site. If they wanted to visit your website, they would just do it; why would they want your tweets spamming up their homepage?