This has, unfortunately, kept many people away from Twitter who would benefit from it. Many who are otherwise very active in social media can’t justify the time required to get involved in Twitter and, as a result, steer clear of it.
However, the people who view Twitter in that light are seeing less than half the story. Whether or not Twitter ever intended to be useful, it has become a very powerful and practical communications platform but the secret is knowing how to use it.
If you need proof of that, here are five practical things that you can do with Twitter right now and you don’t have to be a Twitter wizard or have a powerful account to do them.
5. Reach Out to Companies
If ever you’ve tried to reach a live human being at a large company, you know how difficult it can be. However, most large companies are putting people in charge of monitoring Twitter for what’s being said and many are actively responding. If you need to get in touch with a human being at a company, you can use this to your advantage.
First, see if the company is on Twitter and follow their account (very important). Then, @reply the company making sure to put something before the @ symbol if you want most of your followers to read it. If they don’t have a clear Twitter account, mention the company name and see if someone who works for it is following the term. If you followed the account, there’s a good chance they’ll DM you or reply back, giving you a chance to email or call.
Though this is most commonly used as a means to address grievances against a company, it can be useful, as I found, for finding someone to interview for your site or just getting a more difficult question answered.
4. Ask a Question or Give an Answer
Need an opinion on something real fast from an unbaised third party? Twitter can help. Drop a link to what you need thoughts on and encourage replies, even if you don’t have many followers there’s a good chance one or two will step in to help.
Twitter is a great way for getting quick feedback from those who aren’t close to the project. Likewise, it’s a great to grow your reputation as an expert by answering questions asked by others, all you have to do is search for keywords relevant to your field and answer questions when possible.
All in all, there’s no easier way to connect people with questions to ask with those who are wanting to give answers.
3. Follow Relevant News
There’s a lot of ways you can stay on top of your industry’s news but none are more up to the minute than following relevant keywords on Twitter. Though Google News and Yahoo! News can be great tools for keeping on top of an industry, there can be a great deal of delay between when a story breaks and when it appears in the alerts and feeds, especially if it is a niche field.
You can easily narrow down a Twitter search to show you only tweets with links using the advanced search tool and, though you’ll still have to separate a lot of wheat from the chaff, you can rest assured that it will probably be the best tool for up-to-the-minute news about the topics that interest you.
2. Get Important Alerts
In addition to staying on top of your industry, Twitter can help you stay on top of more urgent news. By using Twitter’s SMS feature, you can have tweets from accounts pushed directly to your phone in real time. How is this useful? Many government agencies and other groups have starting using Twitter as a means to stream real-time updates on various topics.
For example, in my hometown of New Orleans, the Department of Transportation has set up a Twitter account for area traffic alerts. Whenever an accident happens on one of the major thoroughfares causing a delay, I get a text message alerting me that I might want to consider alternate routes.
Very likely, your city has similar tools available to you, either through the government or your local media. All you have to do is search.
1. Actually Talk to People
Here’s a radical idea for Twitter: Try talking to people.
It may seem as if 140 characters isn’t enough to say anything meaningful but remember that the limit was put into place to make Twitter compatible with text messaging and consider how many conversations take place via SMS every day.
I have several friends and relatives that Twitter is my primary means of initial contact for them. If I just need to send a quick message, I either use text or Twitter and, since Twitter is free to use and can reach people both on their cell phones and computer, it has proved to be a good way to reach some of my tech-savvy friends.
I wouldn’t use it to talk to my parents, but for my social networking buff friends, it’s a means of communication that can’t be beat.
Bottom Line
In the end, Twitter is as frivolous or as useful as you make it. If you want to make it about what you had for breakfast or for pure self-promotion, that’s your choice. But don’t forget that it does have real, practical power that you can apply to make your life better.
Basically, Twitter is just a tool and you’ll get out of it what you put into it. If you try to make it something worthwhile, it will be, if you don’t, it won’t. It really is that simple.
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