Posted on October 27, 2008
WSJ Says Twitter Goes Mainstream
BY JASON CORMIER
"What are you doing?" If the answer has anything to do with attempting to improve your online marketing or customer service, then Twitter better be a part of it.
Ok, I can almost hear it now. "This again? Please Jason, not more fanfare about this geeky tool. Why must I broadcast my thoughts in 140 characters or less? Are companies really using this? Really?"
Yes. Still don't believe me? Then wake up and smell today's Wall Street Journal article, Twitter Goes Mainstream. Companies called out specifically in the article include Dell, Zappos and Comcast.
I'll be the first to admit that using Twitter has a set of issues that deserves mentioning in a separate post. From a business perspective, we at Room 214 approach it like any other social media tool. We start by listening (see Brogan's How to Listen for Opportunities on Twitter).
When considering most of my colleagues, I'm a newborn baby on Twitter (find me at JasonCormier). Still, I find the rate at which I'm adding followers to be ever increasing. I'd love to believe it's because I'm becoming more well known, but the reality is it's just more people getting on board.
Oh, just saw Brogan's latest tweet on the Brian Solis post on Twitter tools. How are you using Twitter for your business?
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John is actually so effective in his online conversation about stickers, that I inevitably see the ones his company (stickergiant.com) produces EVERYWHERE. Just today, I was at Andrew Hyde's blog at http://andrewhyde.net/filtrbox-office-warming-party and noticing the beautiful Post Zinger sticker on Ari's laptop at the FiltrBox office warming party.
I was a skeptic for quite some time, then i got drug into Twitter by a friend of mine that loved it. I have since developed a nice list of followers and do get a fair amount of business directly from it. I don't see this changing any time soon, so I am very happy with Twitter now.
Twitter, I thought, was a fad when I first hear about it, 2 years ago. Now everyone is twittering, politicians, celebrities, etc.. It is also pretty easy to gain followers compare to other social networking sites. However, I am not so sure about using it, for business promotion as conversion traffic are usually not so great from twitter unless you have tons of loyal followers.
Thanks for doing the right thing here James, about the best possible response you could have given right there.
Twitter has transformed the way I do business. Because of Twitter I am easier to reach and I find it easier to reach out to others. Twitter and other social media has created the ability for me to participate in a conversation about stickers all day everyday.