Twitter. It’s the micro blogging platform that we’ve all heard of and many would say you either love or hate. Personally I think it might be more accurate to say you get it or you don’t. And if you get it, you’ll know just how powerful it can be, the benefits that can be reaped from it, and that those 140 characters are indeed golden nuggets.

So without wasting any time, let’s just take a look at what Twitter can do for you.

• Brand Awareness. You don’t need to complete your profile page, but you’re missing a trick if you don’t. Upload a picture of yourself or your logo, include a link to your website, tell people a little bit about yourself in your bio and customise your background with your website graphics.

When people read your tweets they often click on your profile to find out a bit about the person behind it. A complete and well presented profile creates a good impression and generates confidence in you.

If you’ve got quality content on your website and people are discussing the subject on twitter, join the conversation and link back to your content. Not only will you be putting yourself in front of others, but you’ll be adding value and establishing your brand.

•  Build Your List. You can send tweets and direct messages which include links to your squeeze page. If you’ve taken time to build a targeted following, people will be only too happy to join your list.

•  Add Value and Boost Your Reputation. Using the search facility you can keep an eye on subjects you’re interested in. If you see someone tweeting about a problem they have, and you can help, drop them a tweet.

•  Increase Sales. This can be done several ways. You can sell to your list, which may include opt ins from Twitter, recommend a product to someone you’ve seen posting about a problem they have, or simply send out a promotional tweet. How successful you are depends on the approach you take. If all you do is send out sales tweets, people may simply ignore you, but if you participate in conversations and offer help, people are likely to view your sales tweets differently.

•  Customer Service. If you see people tweeting adverse comments about you or your product, you can send them a tweet apologising and offering a solution.  If they’re not expecting this they’ll probably be pleasantly surprised. It shows them you care, and it shows others you want to put things right.

•  Join the Conversation. Tweeting can give you the opportunity to participate in industry conversations. You can get your opinion heard and your name in front of key players in your industry.

•  Conduct Surveys. If you’re thinking of introducing something into your business, but you’re not quite sure, why not set up a survey and tweet it? Save yourself a potentially expensive mistake.

•  Reduce Costs. By establishing a presence and a good reputation for quality and service you can use Twitter to send out promotions and press releases. Not only can you reap the benefits of its viral nature, but you can also reduce your advertising and PR costs.

•  Competitor Intelligence. It’s an open forum 🙂 Keep an eye on your competitors. If they’re having problems you may be able to benefit. And if they’re discussing what they’re currently up to, maybe you should copy it!

The above is just a selection of the benefits you can reap by adopting a well thought out Twitter strategy. However, reading the theory is one thing, but does this really happen? Yes! And if you’ like to read some real life success stories, just click on the links below.

How Virgin America Increased Sign Ups by 25% and Raised $50,000 for Charity

Eight Ways to Benefit from Twitter

Five Innovative Ways to Use Twitter

Comcast’s Customer Service

Four Ways Tweets Lead to Business

Convinced? I hope so. But don’t be complacent, or this might happen to you.

Learn from Others Mistakes

Over To You: Do you tweet? How have you benefited from it? Do you use 3^rd paty management tools and if so which ones? What tips can you pass on to others?

Comments welcome.