On the heels of my last post, I thought it would be good to follow up with a discussion on why your company or organization may find it valuable to have an active presence on Twitter.

As with any social networking tool, it’s of course most important to first define your audience and establish your objectives before assuming you should hop on Twitter and start tweetin’ away. Demographic stats around Twitter are hard to come by, but here is a decent demographics breakdown as well as this survey on how people use Twitter.

That being said, here are 5 reasons your organization or company many want to consider using Twitter:

1. To Monitor & Listen
Carefully monitor your brand and utilize a tool such as TweetScan to start the listening/monitoring process. You can use an RSS Reader to subscribe to key terms to make the process easy.

2. To Build Relationships
Your supporters and brand evangelists want to hear from you. I promise. Good or bad, they want to know you are hearing their thoughts, concerns and suggestions as well as responding. Twitter is just one free tool that may be an easy way to connect.

3. To Build Brand Awareness
Though Twitter puts limits on the degree to which you can customize your profile (again, kudos to the simplicity of this site) it serves as a a great brand enhancement tool that you can use to link to back to a website, blog, etc. Most importantly, you’re providing an active, direct line for communication with those who determine your brand anyway. 

4. To Show Thought Leadership
Twitter is an easy avenue to provide links to valuable articles that matter to your followers and contribute in a thoughtful manner to the ongoing conversation. Jeremiah Owyang of Web Strategist fame is a perfect example. He Tweets, people listen. Guess that happens after 9,000 updates.

5. To Build Business
Gone is the era of stuffy social networking sites serving as the only forum for new business development. Depending on your industry, chances are someone from a leadership team is starting to catch the buzz and dip their toes into the Twitter zone as well. Say hello. 

So, what brands are out there on Twitter? Here’s a solid list, but as with any social media strategy, carefully assess your goals and purpose for hopping on Twitter. As Jeremiah demonstrates, there are just as many reasons as to why brands can fail on Twitter.

Happy Tweetin’,
Scott 

*Back in a week, taking a break to shoot some photos and travel out in WA!