What is Twitter?
Twitter is a social media platform that allows users to read and send short messages, no more than 140 characters long, called “tweets”. Users can broadcast their thoughts to their followers and to the world, and can follow the accounts of friends, celebrities and organisations that interest them and stay up to date with what’s happening right now.
Through Twitter’s hash-tag system, you can also stay in the loop with what everyone else is talking about and contribute to “trending” topics.
Created in 2006, Twitter now boasts over 140 million active users. It’s free to register and simple to use.
Why use Twitter in your workplace?
It’s easy to dismiss Twitter, as its 140-character limit on tweets makes any sort of discussion or elaboration impossible. But Twitter can be useful to the communications professional in a variety of ways, and shouldn’t be ignored.
Before you get around to convincing people that you have what they need, you need to let them know you exist, and simply having a presence on Twitter means that you “exist”. Twitter is one of the largest and fastest-growing social media platforms around, and it is becoming commonplace for businesses to have a presence on Twitter. If you can’t be found there, many people may never find you.
It’s also a great way to promote your workplace and its activities. By tweeting regularly, you attract attention to your work and allow your followers to spread the word. It’s free advertising, and you’ve got to love that.
You are also showing off your workplace’s dynamism. Regular tweets about your workplace’s activities shows that there is a lot of action happening. It may seem obvious, but it’s often overlooked that unless people can see cogs in motion, your workplace will be perceived as stagnant.
But it’s not all about tweeting. By following other businesses and organisations you can see what they do that does and doesn’t work, and you can apply the knowledge you gain from this to your own social media strategy.
Twitter Tips
- Tweet regularly. This cannot be overstressed. The discipline your business maintains regarding its Twitter account is how the outside world will perceive your business as a whole. If your workplace’s tweets are irregular, then your workplace will be perceived as unreliable.
- Promote discussion and feedback. By asking questions of your followers you promote engagement with your workplace. Suddenly communication becomes a two-way process, which is much more likely to engage your followers’ imaginations.
- Use hash-tags. A word or phrase in Twitter that is preceded by a hash-tag is automatically recognised as a topic of discussion. Using hash-tags is an excellent way of promoting discussion and generating a buzz about your workplace and its activities.
Social Media at Work 