10 Reasons Why You Should Be Using Twitter Before Your Competitors Do

Twitter is not going away anytime soon but the general public still in the main does not “get” Twitter despite it becoming part of popular culture.

A contact of mine on Twitter and author of the “New Rules Of Marketing And PR”, David Merman Scott was having a Christmas dinner with his brother Peter  who said he was skeptical about Twitter so David asked his Twitter followers while at the dinner and tweeted the following question.

“My brother Peter doesn’t understand Twitter. It’s weird – who cares what you do? can you guys please explain please!!”

In seconds replies started coming in and within 10 minutes he had 50 responses from all over the world and here are some of the responses.

• “Its a search engine for life. You want to find people who like what you do? Search, listen and connect”
• “Twitter is like mingling at a party with some people you know, others you don’t and many more you have to meet”
• “Twitter is like personal hygiene. You only find out about the benefits after you start”

The reality is that until you use it you will not understand the power of  Twitter to provide a rich kaleidoscope of news, people, connections, content, videos and images in real time in your niche and industry. It has the power to influence, create a personal brand and break world wide news.

So what are 10 reasons to use Twitter?

1. Create a Community

Twitter is full of communities that share in real time. It may be social media mavens or travel industry tragics but no matter your community there are thousands of special interest groups ready to dive into.

2. Drive Traffic To you Blog, Website or Landing page

I don’t know of many other platforms on the net that can drive traffic so fast and so targeted as Twitter. As Guy Kawasaki says. “Not everyone agrees with my use of Twitter. I approach it as a broadcast marketing tool to help me make Alltop successful. There is no right or wrong with Twitter. Like other large platforms, it’s a tool.”

3. Get The Latest Real Time News

I didn’t hear about the dumping of the Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd in a newspaper it was a tweet by a fellow blogger Darren Rowse of ProBlogger fame. The plane crashing in the Hudson in New York was broken by a tweet from an iPhone with a photo attached.

4. To Network

This morning I am catching up for a face to face meeting with Karla Nunez from the Social Media Club from Mexico ( I couldn’t have done that without Twitter). I have also met and interviewed CEO’s and communicated with the Global Social Media Directors of Ford (Scott Monty) and General Motors (Chris Barger) because of Twitter

5. Spread Your Ideas

If you want to get your ideas out then Twitter can do that.  As Seth Godin says “Ideas that spread win”.

6. Reach a Global Audience Fast

Most people and companies are thinking local when the Web has now turned our World into a global village. A small community in your niche in your home city is a large market worldwide that can support and sustain a previously too small a niche to now be large enough to be viable as a market.

7. Create a Personal Brand

Twitter provides  you with a place to put your photo, a link to your website or blog and and room for a brief overview. This is just the start you need to create a personal brand globally in a digital world. For more on this topic check out “23 Steps To Build Your Personal Brand”

8. Improve Customer Service

By monitoring your brand name and products for complaints on Twitter you can improve your service when you previously didn’t know you had a problem and were not aware you were losing customers.

9. Humanize the Company

Tony Hsieh of Zappos says Twitter enables him and the company to provide an insight into the personality and culture of Zappos by having employees and the company on Twitter which in turn promotes the brand.

10. Test Reactions in the Market

Jason Calacanis of Mahalo asks his twitter followers “What do you think about this?” and bloggers and fans monitoring his twitter stream will provide market feedback in real time, not next week or next month or have to wait to form a focus group.

So is your company on Twitter or are your competitors? How are you using Twitter?