Twitter is one of the hottest trends in communication. People around the world are communicating in 140 characters. According to emarketer approximately 12.1 million adults are twittering. This is only 7.4% of the adults who use the internet. They project that number to jump to 18.1% in 2010. Even though this is not a huge number it is still significant.
More and more businesses and government agencies are starting to have a presence on twitter. Kevin Stirtz in his website Tweet My Customer lists the businesses that are currently using twitter. He sites businesses such as American Apparel, Amway Global, Kodak, Rubbermaid, M& M's, and Tyson Food among many others. He also writes about government agencies such as: NASA, the States of Colorado, Maine, Nebraska, Vermont, LA Fire Department among others. In a previous post I wrote about the city of San Francisco who has tied twitter to their call center.
Even though these businesses and government agencies have little in common they do share one important trait. They want to listen to their customers. In an interview I did with Comcast, they talked about wanting to be where their customers were. This is important because never before have we had the ability to listen to our customers when they talk about us. The fact is that customers have been talking to their friends and family about the service we receive for centuries. Mostly these conversations were private and self contained. You might have sat at a dinner table and told your loved ones about how badly you were treated when buying lunch. Maybe your family told their friends but usually it ended right there. They might never do business with you again but it wouldn't have a huge impact on the success of your business. But with the internet and twitter specifically, people are complaining and millions of people are listening. That means that your business can be ruined with less than 140 characters.
Usually a customer will walk out without telling anyone in your business. If you are there listening, you are in the position to do something about the issues. You can tweet the customer and try to resolve the issue.
Knowledge is power. Get the knowledge that will save your business by Twittering as your business.
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