Twitter? You what?

Twitter - famously ‘not for kids’ according to a 15-year-old Goldman Sachs intern - is all the rage at the moment. It’s the new facebook, which I guess was itself the new Friends Reunited. It’s this year’s trendy online social networking thing, very popular with 30-something journalists (CN’s own Alex Hawkes, for example).
But it’s not all young, cool hipsters. Other regular users include Graham Hand, the CIC CEO, Peter Head of Arup, the HCA, UKTI, Construction Skills, and the famously down-with-the-kids Institution of Structural Engineers.

Why will I follow the event on twitter? Well, I’m expecting at least half the attendees at ‘Learning to apply web 2.0 in construction’ to be posting their opinions on the network, which I’ll be able to see through the miracle of ‘hashtags’, a device to ensure anyone interested in a topic can find all recent comments about it without knowing who might be making them.

So that’s it then? Twitter is a good way to see what other people in the audience at an event think of the speakers without actually talking to them? Well, that’s one application, but there are others.

I mentioned the journalists - lots of them use it from all the main publications in the sector. If you like to keep in touch with industry journos and feed them the odd story, generally keeping a positive profile for your company - try twitter out.

You can also feed out other information - like product or service updates - or more interestingly use it to listen to the market, by ‘following’ members of your target customer group - if you’re a product manufacturer for example, put ‘architect’ into the search box and follow some of the names who come up. You’ll see what that community is chatting about, rather in the same way as if you were listening in on a focus group. Then you can target your communications to match their issues. Magic.

However, all this one way traffic isn’t what twitter’s real strength is about - and that’s dialogue. It’s a fabulous way to open conversations with your customers (or whoever) and discuss whatever you might want to. Do you make taps? See if interior designers like them. Do you sell solar shading? See what the energy efficiency consultant thinks of your stuff.

That it’s so good for this comes in part from the way people drop their guard when logged in - there’s a lot of honesty and heartfelt opinion (check out Katie Price’s thoughts on estranged husband Peter Andre for an example), but it’s also in part the format - 140 characters is the limit for any message, which is not much.

It was enough though for Mike Morrish of the Telegraph to sum up the entire footballing career of Darren Bent, who like Price has put his innermost thoughts on Twitter for public display: “Get Ipswich deal, do ok, join Charlton, do ok, join Spurs, get rich, miss lots of chances” - 90 characters. It would now have “join Sunderland, start well, and fade” of course, but still, the only way he’ll hit 140 characters is by joining at least two more clubs, preferably with long names.
So. Twitter. Chat to your customers and prospects. Find out what they really think - with no essays. Instantly. Brilliant. (123 characters)

Why aren’t you trying it out already?

Ross Sturley is principal of Chart Lane (www.chartlane.co.uk), a strategic marketing and communications consultancy, and keen on twitter (http://twitter.com/rosssturley). He is also a Construction News blogger, and committee member for the Chartered Institute of Marketing Construction Industry Group (CIMCIG - www.cimcig.org, or http://twitter.com/cimcig).