Why Twitter matters to your business now…and probably for at least a few more years

My friend and I talked about Twitter during our morning run today.  He’s an editor at a medical trade journal which, like many publications nowadays, is ramping up its online offerings.  I offered some advice on how he might use Twitter to communicate with readers and drive traffic to the website.  We talked about setting a few initial objectives and what to measure.  No discourse on social media would be complete without discussing metrics and ROI!

Rightly so.  Sales and marketing is a numbers game, especially in the business of online publishing and advertising where every page view and click matters.  Companies should direct their employees to “twitter” away their time at work only if it makes sense with respect to the bottom line.

Of course, meeting said bottom line refers to tallying up your results at some future point in time.  Whether your are using Twitter to reach out to fans, monitor consumer perception of your brand, promote products or services, spread company news, address customer service issues, or all of the above, you can never really weigh Twitter’s full impact on your business, sales, and brand reputation until you’ve used it for a while.  

That’s what concerns a lot of marketers who fear the risk of dumping both time and resources into something that may very well end up being another Internet fad.

I can’t blame that line of thinking.  Just as snail mail and voice mail was replaced by e-mail and text messaging, Twitter (and Facebook, etc.) will continue to evolve or disappear altogether for the next killer app.  Evolution in online media is not slowing down.  News flash: There will be something better than Twitter…someday.

That day, however, is certainly not now.  

Although Twitter’s traffic growth appears to be slowing, the site remains wildly popular across a wide demographic.  Twitter plays an increasing role in people’s lives in ways both large and small: a US Airways passenger posts a Twitpic of the Hudson-river splash landing before major news arrive on the scene; Iranian citizens are using Twitter to speak out against an oppressive regime; your colleague incessantly tweets about her favorite place to eat lunch.  

And businesses?  Restaurants and bars are tweeting last minute happy-hour specials.  Product review editors and writers are tweeting links to their articles.  Trade associations and networking groups are hosting Tweetups.  Public relations and marketing guys like me are using Twitter to share news releases and keep in contact with industry peers.  Companies like Dell, Zappos, and Whole Foods credit their Twitter accounts for generating millions in new sales.

Yes, the world is logging on to Twitter.  Go ahead.  Give it a try.