Guest post by Vanessa Packs
Twitter currently has 200 million registered users and 100 million of which are active users on a monthly basis. Around 350 million tweets are posted per day.
Now those numbers tell a lot about the extensive reach of Twitter. Social media sites are initially created to connect people by sharing different kinds of content such as text updates, photos, and videos. Nowadays, these sites can be used for business collaborations, too. Here are five ways you can use Twitter as a collaboration tool for your organization.
Create a company account. You need to have a Twitter account for your organization to be able to leverage this social media site. Whatever your business is, you need to be where your customers and employees are. Having a Twitter account makes you relevant in your industry. You can choose to make it either a public or private account. You can create a public company account for all updates for your customers and you can also start a private account which you can use for your employees only. It also shows that you are accessible to your customers and employees.
Use hashtags. Hashtags are mainly use to classify a particular category. Trending topics are usually identified by hashtags. You can use this to distinguish your promos such as #summerpromo2013 or #logocontest. You can also start a discussion within your company using your private account by using the #companyouting or #planning2013 hashtags. You can also use it to ask for suggestions from your team using hashtags like #newproductideas or #renovationsuggestions. It’s amazing to see how both your customers and employees will actively respond to these hashtags. .
Interact with customers. The core of collaboration is simply communication. With Twitter, you have the opportunity to reply and interact with your customers real-time. You can retweet them, too! Your customers will appreciate that you actually pay attention to what they say. Most of your customers are living a fast-paced life and they need quick answers to their inquiries. Through Twitter you have the opportunity to show your customers your excellent customer service!
Use Twitter Chat. Most people are not aware of that there is actually a Twitter Chat. All you need to do is log in to tweetchat.com using your Twitter account and you’re good to go! Using the Twitter Chat you can simply type the hashtag for the topic you want to talk about. Let your teammates use the hashtag for the meeting say for example #productlaunchmeeting. Through tweetchat you can collaborate online even if you’re all in different places.
Follow. By following someone or even another company, you will get updates that will help you in your business. When you follow another brand you will be aware of their latest products, events, and promos. You will also chance upon some insights from your customers when you follow them. Some of the brightest ideas can come from people who patronize your products. When you follow your customers it will also show that you’re interested in them.
Twitter is both a great social networking site and a collaboration tool. The great thing about it is that it’s free and very user friendly! Even your employees who are not Twitter-savvy can learn using this social media in no time. Try using Twitter for small scale collaborations first and see how it turns out. Once you’re comfortable with it, you can move it to a bigger scale involving more people within your organization.
Author bio:
Vanessa Parks is a Freelance Systems Analyst with 5 Years of solid experience. She has been an advocate of cloud computing and collaboration for improved work efficiency and performance. She also has a passion in dancing, cooking and playing golf.
