Twitter has just released a guide for business use of Twitter they call "Twitter 101". This resides on a new subdomain http://business.twitter.com. This new focus makes it official that Twitter is not just for "what are you doing?" any more. It is a web 2.0 business tool and Twitter realizes that embracing the business use of Twitter will eventually go a long way toward making Twitter pay. This will be a developing story over the next months and years, and we look forward to "following" the story.
As Twitter says in the guide, "Every day, millions of people use Twitter to create, discover and share ideas with others. Now, people are turning to Twitter as an effective way to reach out to businesses, too. From local stores to big brands, and from brick-and-mortar to internet-based or service sector, people are finding great value in the connections they make with businesses on Twitter."
The guide begins by covering getting started and "learning the lingo" which help businesses new to Twitter come up to speed, and then moves on to best practices and case studies which are the meat for businesses currently using Twitter to glean additional strategies for further leveragining their presence on the platform. The case studies include companies like Dell, Jet Blue, Pepsi and smaller companies and the innovative ways they are leveraging the social site.
Twitter 101 concludes with a valuable resource section that includes books, other sites and pertinent blog posts for leveraging Twitter for your business.
Another interesting tidbit is that there is now a link in the footer of every page on Twitter labeled "business" that takes you directly to Twitter 101, A Special Guide
Stay tuned. This is just the start of the "monetization" of Twitter, which some will mourn, but we welcome as a Web 2.0 marketing tool for retail ecommerce sites.
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