Is Twitter Really A Useful Business Tool?

If you’re completely new to Twitter, you’re probably wondering exactly what it is…in brief, it’s a “micro blogging” tool which lets you post updates online of 140 characters (yes, characters not words!) only.

You’re probably also wondering what the point is of something that lets you write just 140 characters - and that’s certainly the most common reaction of newbie Twitterers. Over the past year, we’ve been experimenting with Twitter on a fairly extensive basis - you can “follow” me here >>>.

The key question that we’ve been trying to answer is this: Is Twitter a useful business tool?

And the conclusion? Twitter can be great for business, for the following purposes:

• To extend your online profile, brand and reputation
• To connect with colleagues, prospects, clients and more
• To act as a bridge that links up your other online profiles
• To gather instant feedback and responses to questions

There’s one thing we’ve learned however which is crucial to maximising the benefit and ROI of using Twitter…minimise and restrict the time you spend on Twitter.

Once you ‘get’ it, it is seriously addictive and spending 2-3 hours a day, reaps no more benefits from a business/positioning/marketing perspective than spending 30m-1 hour a day tweeting.

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