Twitter is the word on every businesswomen’s lips at the moment but often the next word is how?, followed by why? In the first part of this two part series, Twitter expert Darrin Bird explains how, why and a lot more. Twitter hit the traditional media headlines with Ashton Kutcher's (@aplusk) race to be the first Twitter user with 1 million followers. He has moved on now and currently has 1.975 million followers. Barack Obama (@barackobama) has 1.283 million followers and used Twitter in his campaign for presidency in conjunction with Facebook. Many socially connected businesses are already tuned in and using Twitter, why and what for? 420% growth in the last year Before we get started here is a little background about the tool that was named for a verb, became a noun and hatched many new acronyms. The concept was forged around personal status broadcast "What are you doing right now?". Twitter started in March 2006 and has seen over 420% growth in the last year, today there are an estimated 11 million users. Twitter is a distributed communication service that sends short, 140 character messages or "tweets" similar to SMS text messages. Instead of sending just between mobiles like SMS, Tweets can be sent and received between Twitter members directly or to all followers via their choice of connection; mobile, internet, Facebook, blogs and third party clients like Tweetdeck. Messages can be retweeted (forwarded), replied and publicly searched tracked and trended like in Twitscoop. Along with your Twitter message (tweet) you can also send shortened URLs and links to websites, pictures, and video still leaving room for the context of the message. The Red Cross uses Twitter as a tool to connect with people. Mundane tweets probably won’t last Admittedly, there are many cases of Twitter being used to document people's mundane life, "... eating a bagel with swiss cheese, yum!" this isn't really newsworthy or worth following and unlikely to withstand the test of time. Now compare that with Red Cross (@RedCross) who are using Twitter to instantly connect with people post a disaster, directly respond to questions and offers of help and promote their cause. There is a pointy end to this application that traditional media such as CNN and BBC take seriously; have now adopted and are using for breaking news. Twitter has been ahead of the pack during breaking news and events as they are occurring; during the recent Mumbai terrorist attack people were twittering from inside the hotels while under siege. Google's announcement of their new of the Google Wave application to developers last week was being twittered by the audience during the presentation. While writing this article the terrible news of Air France Airbus 330 disappearing over the Atlantic was trending in Twitscoop before it was reported in Australia.
So far Twitter has evolved in to three core functions or uses:
1. Follow: status of people or subject.
2. Engage: listening and interacting.
3. Offer: promoting and sharing information.
Next week we will take a closer look at these and some of the opportunities, including why you would use Twitter in your business.
* Darrin Bird founded 2D2T Consulting www.2d2t.com in 2006 to provide strategic planning and project management for software selection, upgrade and infrastructure rollouts. Follow Darrin on Twitter @dajobi
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