Micro-Blogging May Be Next B2B Outlet
by February 23, 2009 12:00 am 96 views
Do you tweet?
According to the Pew Internet & American Life Project, the use of micro-blogging personal update services like Twitter has risen in recent months. About 11 percent of adults online use these services, which is up from about 9 percent in November.
MinOnline, a Web site dedicated to publishing and media, reports that the median age of a Twitter user is 31, MySpace is 27, Facebook is 26 and LinkedIn as 40.
The Pew study said that 65 percent of Internet users read print newspapers, but that only 52 percent of Twitter users do. However, 76 percent of Twitter users read newspapers online.
Elise Mitchell, founder of Mitchell Communications Inc. of Fayetteville, uses Twitter and LinkedIn to stay in touch with clients and Facebook and a personal blog to stay in touch with friends.
“All those platforms are different — they are not the same,” she said.
Mitchell uses the sites to build both a personal and professional brand, but not to market her business or shill her services.
“You can’t market yourself, but you can build an audience. People who choose to follow you — choose to follow you,” she said.
Despite its sophomoric moniker, Twitter is really a business tool, she said, which can be used to build a community around shared interests. The hook? Twitter’s microblogs, called tweets, limit you to 140 characters, so you’ve got to be succinct.
A recent post on Mitchell’s page read: “Looking for ways to measure ROI for businesses of social media participation? Great blog post: http://tinyurl.com/btel7q.”
“I assure you, you will get more out of it than you ever put into it,” Mitchell said.