In a previous post, I presented a casual pitch for Twitter. The list of professional reasons that I provided in support of using Twitter in the workplace was admittedly short. There are plenty more reasons to use Twitter. I’d like to share one more today. Twitter can be a powerful tool in building the strength of a brand.

I have an anecdote that I’d like to share.

Twitter to build brand strength

Earlier this month, my colleague in my London office celebrated her one year anniversary with lbdesign. This co-worker, Ngaire Ackerley, is a great designer and a fantastic team player. In light of her important milestone, I tweeted that the company was happy to celebrate her anniversary and that it was lucky to have her on board. I then used my personal Twitter account (@liamdempsey) to retweet the original message.

A couple of hours later, I received a note from a contact of mine about how impressed he was that I had publicly praised and thanked my colleague for playing a valuable role in our team. My contact took time out of his busy day to share his thoughts and to congratulate me on my tweets. This contact is a chap who has repeatedly attempted to steer web design projects my way. My simple, 140-character postings reaffirmed the respect my contact has for my business.

By using Twitter to announce an employee’s anniversary and to celebrate her involvement with the company, I was able (unwittingly, I must admit) to grow the brand strength of my small business in the eyes of a key contact. How is that for a powerful marketing tool?

It wasn’t too many days ago that I was chatting with a few friends about the value of Twitter usage from both a professional and personal perspective. As a follow-up to that conversation, I emailed my friends (both of whom are not on Twitter) a note about some of the main reasons for using Twitter.

Both of the people with whom I was speaking happen to be legal academics. However, the lists below are certainly relevant to a wider range of professions.

First, a quote from Evan Williams, the Co-Founder of Twitter: “Twitter lets people know what’s going on about things they care about instantly, as it happens.”

The ideas posted below are not listed in order of importance or immediate relevance. Rather, they are listed in the order that they popped into my head.

The Professional Case for Twitter

1. By searching Twitter, you can see what people around the world are saying about a particular topic.
2. When attending a conference, you can communicate with the organizers and other attendees. Communication can be about updates to the conference schedule, speaker listings, presentation locations or whatever.
3. If you blog, you can use Twitter to promote your blog and to engage with other bloggers to create a dialog.
4. You can be on Twitter as a follower and not as a speaker. You don’t have to say anything on Twitter; just following and listening is perfectly acceptable. You can stay in tune without broadcasting.
5. You can follow the key media outlets for your area of academic (or professional) expertise, giving yourself access to real time news and articles on that topic.
6. Twitter is truly international, so active engagement in conversations on Twitter can lead to the development of a vastly expanded professional network.
7. The technology and law surrounding social media, distribution, free speech, etc. continues to evolve. By using this increasingly popular tool, you will have first-hand experience and insight into this developing story and industry.
8. Although no replacement for proper research, Twitter is great for asking for recommendations about a myriad of topics.
9. Twitter can be leveraged to develop a presence and reputation for being a source for knowledge and news on a particular topic.
10. You can distribute links, changing to class schedule, etc. to students in a very timely fashion.

The Personal Case for Twitter

1. Keep informed: Follow local museums, libraries, stores, cinemas and government offices to keep apprised of comings and goings.
2. Stay in touch: Like Facebook and email, Twitter is another way to keep in touch with friends and family.
3. Save money: more and more business and fee-charging organizations (like museums) are offering deals exclusively through Twitter.
4. Find a hidden gem: People you follow will share something new, exciting or valuable. Twitter is a perpetual office water cooler conversation where people share tips, advice and experiences.

Here is the conversation:

Liam: is happy that new MacBook Pro being shipped today; not happy that new Mac is for new employee.

Liam: has to order a new copy of Sage today. Not as exciting as ordering new computer.

Sage: @liamdempsey Eh – what could be more exciting than a new copy of Sage?

Liam: @sageuk Wow! Sage replied to me. Called on the carpet for thinking Sage isn’t all that cool. Ha-ha! I guess Sage might be cool after all.

Sage: @liamdempsey Oh yeah, business software rocks – don’t you forget it ;)

Liam: RT @sageuk: @liamdempsey Oh yeah, business software rocks – don’t you forget it ;) … Sage is rocking!

A few minutes later I got an email that Sage is now following me on Twitter.

Let’s briefly consider Sage’s use of Twitter for marketing:

Sage has clearly put resources into monitoring its brand image and into taking advantage of Web 2.0 functionality. Through its Twitter account (and the savvy person using the account yesterday), Sage converted a single user (me) into thinking that the makers of accounting/book keeping software really are pretty cool. As you can read above, I was impressed enough by Sage to re-tweet some of their messages to my followers. And as I have a number of followers (small when compared to some, but still at least a handful), Sage was able to reach those potential customers as well.

Sage is actively tracking what people (customers and potential customers) say about it (by tracking use of ‘sage’ on Twitter), and then engaging with those people in a friendly, joking fashion via a trendy communication tool. Through this technique, Sage managed to persuade a sceptical customer into a loyal one. Job done, Sage Marketing Department!