Why Businesspeople Use Twitter: Tales From the Trenches

Are you Twittering? If not, don't you know that it is the fastest growing social network with seven million people using it?

If you are like me, you may have thought: "What will it do for my business? How much time will it take?"

To get some answers, I decided to interview some business people I know and respect—people who are successful and yet find time to Twitter. Armed with the insights I got from them, I started Twittering last week (johntodor).

Here is what I learned.

Lesley Russell, VP of Direct Marketing and Sales, St Supery Winery
Twitter username: stsupery

Twittering personally about 8 months, for business about 4 months.

What motivated you and how did you get started?

I kept hearing from marketing gurus that consumer brands needed to monitor their online reputation and Twitter was mentioned as one way to do so.

I started by searching Twitter for mentions of St. Supery and almost immediately discovered that people were talking about us and it wasn't all good. I came across a tweet by a woman in NYC saying she was disappointed in our Sauvignon. I responded by mentioning that I was sorry she was disappointed and offered to send her a different version of our Sauvignon Blanc. She was both surprised and pleased to hear from me. She loved the wine I sent her and said so on Twitter and in her blog. What I didn't know was while she is a PR Professional in her day job, she is also an amateur wine blogger with a big following.

Wine bloggers have a tremendous influence, so we invited a group of them to spend a day with us at our winery. They were twittering away all day long. Tremendous word of mouth.

In addition to monitoring and responding to comments, I answer questions like "When will the 2004 vintage of our Elu wine be ready to drink?" or "Where can I buy your wine in Florida?" I try to help our customers have a better experience with our wines.

Pamela Swingley, President of Savvy Internet Marketing
Twitter username: pamelaley

Twittering about 8 weeks.

What motivated you and how did you get started?

I am developing software for personal healthcare management and will be looking for investors in the near future. My background has been in the technology sector. I wanted to learn about the investment and healthcare communities, fast. I also wanted to start building visibility and credibility within both communities.

I searched for active Twitters in both communities and started following them. I quickly got a feel for the culture of the communities and started asking questions and adding my insight about Internet Marketing. They must like something I am saying because twice as many people follow me than I follow. I am learning and building credibility in a new industry.

I get great results and it only takes 15 minutes per day.

Randy Saunders, Senior Marketing Manager, Cincom Systems
Twitter usernames: randysaunders and cincom

Started Twittering about 9 months ago but only got serious 3 months ago.

What motivated you and how did you get started?

More and more business people I know were using Twitter, so 3 months ago I decided to make a concerted effort to figure out what you could do with 140 characters.

I started with two goals. One, I wanted to connect with a wider range of business professionals and to learn from them. Two, I wanted to monitor and enhance Cincom's online reputation.

In the first case, I was very pleasantly surprised to learn how accessible, open and personable many CEOs are on Twitter. I am also learning from people outside my core industry. Now I am educating others within Cincom of how to use Twitter.

One of the beauties of Twitter is that it is rapid fire and easy. People say what is on their mind. There is something very real about this type of communication.

Cincom's online forum, Expert Access, provides thought leadership on Customer Relationship Strategies and Business Process Management. We now use Twitter to promote it.

We also use Twitter to monitor mentions of our Call Center products and learn directly from our customers. It is also a good way to monitor what our competitors are up to.

I get on Twitter 2-3 times per day and try to keep the total time to 15 minutes per day.

Bill Flitter, CEO and Founder of Pheedo
Twitter username: bflitter

Twittering about one year.

What motivated you and how did you get started?

Curiosity. Pheedo is in the business of syndicating and aggregating content for clients. I wanted to see if we could use Twitter to syndicate our own content. I also wanted to know what people were talking about.

I started by using search tools to find people who were Twittering about topics that interested me. I was surprised by the volume of people chiming in. People let loose with whatever is on their minds. They also tweet about what is happening right now. Once I discovered #hashtags, I realized you could follow the conversation about a give topic, often as it was happening. People twitter about events they are at, while they are at them. How else could you get insights from conferences you are not at or get multiple opinions, now? Events now post the #hashtag on their site, just paste in the search window to learn what people are saying.

We also use Twitter for brand monitoring. We quickly find out if a client is having a problem and can respond. We poll people to see how widespread a problem is and allocate resources accordingly. We want our customers to have a good experience with Pheedo.com and we want them to know we are responsive. Twitter is a good way to do so.

I must admit that I am also a little cynical about Twitter. There is a lot of noise, a lot of posting of things I am just not interested in. I actually seldom get directly on Twitter.com. Rather, I use friendfeed.com as an aggregator of all my social media sites. I find this to be much more productive.

My digital center is my blog. This is where I share ideas and content and use syndication tools to distribute it to Facebook, Twitter and so on. For example, Twitterfeed.com converts my blog to an rss feed to my Twitter account. It stays within the 140 character limit and links back to the actual blog.

Mark Ginnebaugh, President of DesignMind
Twitter username: markginnebaugh

What motivated you and how did you get started?

I run several professional groups and was looking for ways to raise awareness and increase attendance at meetings. I also have a blog and wanted to promote it.

I started promoting my events, and within a week got results. People who never heard of our groups started showing up—because they were interested in the topic.

In addition to gaining visibility, I am learning a lot by being on Twitter. I try to only spend about 15 to 20 minutes per day on Twitter but often spend much more. I must warn you that if can be addictive.

If this article motivates you to Twitter, you might want to start following these people (see their Twitter username). If you are already Twittering, please share your insights and stories.

Here is a list of resources to help you use Twitter for business.

eBooks

• How to Use Twitter for Business: a Beginner’s Guide (free)
• The Twitter Power Guide: Advanced tips to make the most of Twitter (free)
• Twitter Means Business: How Microblogging can help or hurt your company ($17.95)

Articles

• 7 Marketing Mistakes to Avoid on Twitter
• Twitter: A Marketer’s Duct Tape
• From Twits to Tweeple, Why I Embraced Twitter and You Should Too (part one of a five part series)
• Beginner’s Quick Start Guide and Tutorial to Using Twitter (From Zappos)
• Twitter 101: Connie Benson provides a roundup of Twitter-related resources

Video

• Twitter in Plain English (Common Craft Show)