Many of you may know of the recent surge in popularity of the Twitter service. Quite simply, the goal of Twitter is to answer a question: “What are you doing?” Last month (as I began to use the service more aggressively since I signed up in December) I realized that not everyone is answering that question anymore. Twitter is becoming more of a microblogging tool, a news announcement tool, a networking tool, and as of late, a marketing tool.

That’s right. Twitter can be used for marketing.

Currently, the hot “bot” (literally) update comes from Woot.com, an online store that provides daily deals. As you can see on Woot’s Twitter page, the site does not feature anything but hot deals on the products it is selling for the day.

Woot's Twitter Page

For marketers who use Twitter, this is a great way to reach out to a different demographic. As you may be able to see from the screenshot, Woot currently has 1302 followers. Those 1302 followers, who made the choice to follow Woot’s announcements, receive highly targeted and desired traffic about products that Woot is selling.

Is this the only reach of Twitter? Apparently not. Today, TechCrunch announced that Twitter will be introducing web services, which will should broaden the Twitter audience.

Interestingly enough, for those who are not able to commit to blogging, particularly due to time restraints, using Twitter would be an interesting exercise for companies to try communicating their own announcements. Some blogs already provide headlines on the Twitter site. But if you didn’t have a blog, you could limit your announcements to 140 characters (that’s a Twitter restriction) and share what you think would best serve the community that follows you. This would, as previously stated, save time and give you the opportunity to have a “blogging” voice in “microblogging” terms.

If you’re looking to get on the Twitter bandwagon, tell your family and friends and let them sign up so that they can follow your business. The site itself makes broadcasting a lot easier with a very targeted audience.


Posted by Tamar Weinberg at 2:07 pm
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