Five Ways Businesses Use Twitter

Twitter is the most rapidly adopted communication tool in history, and companies can no longer afford to ignore the conversations taking place there. But how exactly can businesses use Twitter? The possibilities are endless. Here are just 5 examples. They're diverse in size and focus, but it is hoped that a few will be useful for your business.

IBM:
A Really Big Company Newsletter The world's largest technology company may also be the world's "tweetingest." More than 1,000 employees in various countries use Twitter to talk with both their co-workers and customers. Twitter lets employees demonstrate their expertise and serves as a real-time IBM community newsletter, getting time-sensitive word to the company's global ecosystem faster than by any other means— including IBM's own LotusNotes. Adam Christensen (@AdamClyde) is the IBM manager of social media communications and says Twitter spread through the corporation organically, "There was no top-down mandate. One employee started using it one day and influenced another, and so on."

Sodexo:
Efficient, Effective Executive Recruiting North America's largest institutional food service company is not typically seen on the forefront of technology. However, this year Sodexo successfully used Twitter, braided with other social media tools, to recruit new senior-level employees. One case: A private chef in Florida tweeted that he was interested in returning to Sodexo, where he had interned years earlier. The recruiting team (@SodexoCareers)found him a new job the same day. The company attributed Twitter, and social media for tripling traffic to its job site in 2009.

Comcast:
Showing Customers It Cares In tough economic times, service becomes a critical issue. Cutting support costs can be lethal to customer satisfaction. In 2008, Comcast, which had previously struggled with customer satisfaction, started providing customer support on Twitter (@ComcastCares) as an alternative to having customers wait in the phone queue.
   By tweeting, customers could watch the Comcast Cares team actually trying and usually succeeding at solving problems. Recently, the American Customer Satisfaction Index reported Comcast rose an impressive 9.3% in satisfaction. The only change, observed the survey, was the team of 10 Comcast support employees using Twitter.

The Coffee Groundz:
Publicizing a Local Café This Houston neighborhood coffee shop @CoffeeGroundz is gaining customers and popularity through Twitter. It's one of the first businesses to use Twitter for takeout orders. They also announce their upcoming events and "tweetups" that bring in about 200 people a month, some of whom become regular customers.

Dell Outlet:
Clearing Old Stock Inexpensively Twitter's first retail store offers expensive-to-sell refurbished computers. The account tweets messages to bargain hunters about available computers and offers discount coupons. In its first year, @DellOutlet did approximately $2 million of business. The cost and time per sale were greatly reduced from other options.
  

 

Bloomberg Businessweek

The Corporate Dossier, The Economic Times, Friday 13-05-2011