How can I use Twitter for my business? What makes it special? There's so much written about the use of twitter already but "what does it all mean?".

Twitter offers a completely different method of communication. ;It mixes social networking with instant messaging. ;Posts are a very brief 140 characters each allowing you to answer that burning question, “What are you up to right now?” ;

In order to answer this question you must make every word count. ;You need to grab your readers’ attention quickly with each “tweet” (how a post is referred to on Twitter). ;Twitter allows you to sign up and send messages to your subscribers and friends. ;You can update your audience as frequently as you wish and they can respond to you quickly and easily. ;

The way it works is that people follow your “tweets”, so the more followers you have the more you are likely to get as their friends see your details on the profile pages on others and choose to follow you too. ;Each time you post an updated tweet, it will be transmitted to your group of followers immediately to their computers and cell phones if they have chosen that way of communication. ;

If you send out regular tweets you will start to gather a faithful group of followers. ;Make each tweet count and add value. ;If you write reviews on computer games or create accessories for Avatars, then you can tell your followers when you have been working on something new or have something new to tell them. ;

It is possible to grow a fanatical following who are so interested in what you are doing and offering that they look out for every new tweet from you. ;For information marketers such intensity can quickly develop into a faithful band of buyers who react to any new offerings you put their way. ;

Friends that want to arrange a meeting can tweet everyone to let them know the time and location of the meeting. ;You can also send tweets that give notice of a latest update to your blog or lens update. ;Remember to work your tweet carefully so you have enough room to include the link to your site. ;

This is essential if you want to create interest in your website and branding yourself successfully. ;Even a very brief post can give you an identity in such a way that followers are attracted to your particular niche. ;Some people love Twitter and others just do not understand it. ;

To understand how it works you really need to use Twitter every day. ;Look at what other Twitterers are up to and how they use tweets to market their brand, build an identity, display their expertise and generate website traffic. ;

Twitter is addictive and this is mainly down to instant gratification. ;It is easy to use and allows you to get your message across to lots of people quickly. ;Once you have chosen to use Twitter for your niche, hobby, profession, business, or sport, you will start to see how it is a great way of dispensing huge amounts of information quickly, one tweet at a time. ;

It's more than just this though, you can use some of the social bookmarking tools mentioned in a ;previous post, that will make the tweet for you automatically, for example when you update your blog, or publish a new article. From a business perspective you can send information instantly and also get it back just as quickly. Remember though it's instant gratification and so you need to act fast if a customer contacts you. It's great for support issues, combine Twitter with your support desk and you can have a very effective result for your customers problem resolution and they will be thinking great customer service.

What am I trying to do with my communications; at work or at home?

On an ongoing basis, typically monthly, your communications costs are likely to be in the top three if not the top charge. Think about it, you have a home phone, a mobile or two or three in the house (if not more), an internet connection (ADSL or cable), maybe even cable television. That all adds up pretty quickly to a recurring few hundred dollars a month for a typical household.

That’s a fair amount of services just for one house!

What about when you are running a business? For businesses the costs can be from a few hundreds to many tens of thousands of dollars, which is significant, no matter what currency you use. The collection of services used in a business will vary of course to the household in both type and quantity of services. For example, multiple lines for the office staff into a PABX (PBX), data services for internet, email, inter-office communication, mobiles for your mobile field, sales and executive staff.

It’s not that you are just paying for services, there are all sorts of technologies, like mobile phones, computers, email servers, data links, modems, handsets, PABX’s, gateways, servers and all manner of gadgets in between. Even for those working in the IC&T industry it’s bewildering to know everything there is to know about all the possibilities.

In the end it comes down to a simple question.

What am I trying to do with my communications? As a business owner or a householder, the question is valid, just the scale is likely to be different.

You might be wondering, what do you mean by “what am I trying to do with my communications”? Let me answer that briefly by giving some examples.

•    do we mainly receive calls
•    how any SMS text messages do I send a day
•    when I call family, we speak for a long time and they are in Europe
•    I miss more calls than I answer
•    my daughter monopolises the phone
•    we make more calls than we receive
•    the coverage at our place is bad
•    there are more interesting things on the internet and I need to make it more affordable

For businesses the questions are largely those of “what type of business am I in”.

•    we mainly make calls to our clients, usually to their mobiles
•    or internet is great though I would like to get more sales through it
•    how can we make the calls between our offices and staff more cost effective
•    is it time to consider IP telephony yet?

The questions will or should relate to, and not be limited by these considerations:

•    your strategy for the type of business you are in,
•    the volume of your transactions,
•    the value of each transaction,
•    the location,
•    the type of communicating you do during the day, e.g. sales, customer care, support, complaints, general enquires, servicing, surveys;

Knowing the answers to these will help define:

•    technology
•    service type
•    redundancy
•    charges
•    functionality
•    resilience

These are a lot of questions to absorb and begin answering. Just remember a phone is not just a phone, a call is not just a call. There are options, it’s just a matter of weeding through to find the package that’s right for you, at home or in your business.

Doing this right will not only save you money it will also improve the what and the how you are communicating. If you need help with the content…well that’s a different topic

In the next topic we’ll start looking at discussing one of the most asked questions…

Section 2: Should I get rid of my landline?

Two things are certain in the telecommunications industry:

• change happens every day
• call charges change almost as often

Have you ever asked yourself am I paying too much? How do I know? or said I wish I could wave the magic wand and get the best deal for me out there.

In answering this there are 7 important considerations:

1. What am I trying to do with my communications; at work or at home?
2. Should I get rid of my landline?
3. What’s the best plan for me?
4. What handset should I get?
5. Am I paying too much for what I am getting?
6. What will it cost to change my provider?
7. Are there any other services that make more sense for me?

Let’s look at each of these in turn over the coming weeks and months.

Feel free to ask questions at anytime.