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The frequency of your tweets is also an important consideration. Active Twitter users are the only kind likely to develop strong followings. A Twibs study has found that when it comes to business users, as a general rule, one tweet will equate to one follower, so a business that sends 2,000 tweets will usually obtain 2,000 followers over that period.

It’s also useful to note that Twitter updates are not restricted solely to Twitter. You can also display them on your business website or blog, allowing your visitors to see what you’re ‘tweeting’ without having to be members of the platform itself.

A new frontier of customer service
Beyond broadcasting, Twitter’s potential also lies in its ability to create one-to-one engagements. The service allows its users to ‘reply’ to specific tweets, meaning that users can engage in conversations, rather than simply receiving broadcasts. Many businesses are finding that this ‘reply’ feature is a great way to improve their customer service. Of course, Twitter won’t revolutionise or replace your existing service regimen, but it is an opportunity to add a new, proactive and responsive service channel to your arsenal.

A celebrated example is Comcast, an American cable provider whose ‘digital care manager’ Frank Eliason, watches Twitter and other social networks for comments about the company, messaging and offering help to users who’ve posted comments about trouble they’re having with Comcast or its services. If you choose to engage with customers in this way, be aware that it can quickly clog your Twitter feed so it is a good idea either to have a dedicated customer service Twitter account (separate to your primary one), or to use private messaging within Twitter to communicate directly with your customer.

If it’s relevant to your business, Twitter is also a great medium for serving up service updates, with airlines such as Virgin America sending out information on delays and gate changes through its account, at the same time as engaging with customers.

Examples to ‘follow’
Twitter is still very much an emerging platform and its full potential is yet to be tapped.

Starbucks, which has almost 80,000 followers, now has a Twitter feed run by ‘Brad’, a barista from Seattle, who answers questions about Starbucks’ various coffees and posts updates about the company’s initiatives. Penguin Books uses its feed to promote podcasts from its website, announce awards won by its writers, and to discuss favourite books and authors with followers.

Many businesses say they started with Twitter as an experiment, and found that new and effective uses of the service emerged over time. Even if you’re not sure exactly how you’d use it, in joining up you’ll probably find that creative uses spring to mind once you get started.

When it comes to business use of Twitter in Australia it’s still early days. In comparison to the US and Europe, Australian companies have been slow off the mark. However, according to Hitwise, Twitter itself has been enjoying a “phenomenal yearly growth rate” in Australia, with web visits increasing 517 percent last year. This means that there’s currently great scope for Australian business adopters to reach an increasing local audience.

So if you’re looking to add a new dimension to your business, sign up for an account. In addition to its potential benefits for connecting with and better serving your customers, it’s also an enormous amount of fun.

—Caroline Shawyer is director of The PR Group and can be followed at www.twitter.com/cshawyer

If you would like to follow DynamicBusiness on Twitter to keep up with the latest small business updates, news, tips and blogs, you can find us at www.twitter.com/DynamicBusiness

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