What is Twitter and why should you use it?

The little bird calls us, we want to click on him all the time. But, it is convenient, before getting excited, think carefully about what we use Twitter for. The uses that professionals and companies give to Twitter, are two, basically: Professional networking and something like customer support, that is, what would be lead capture, and support of our products and services - sorry to the graduates in Marketing if I make a somewhat lax use of the terms, but in reality it is so.

For this reason, it is convenient, if the desire is to build a professional reputation, have a personal account and one for the company. Many "entrepreneurs" have only one account, through which they disseminate their points of view and their "know-how" about what they do, but through which they also do SMM - Social Media Marketing. I think this case can only happen when the name is the brand, and even then, it does not quite convince. Whoever covers a lot, does not squeeze, and for taking care of the promotion of their services, they lose themselves from the enriching side of exchange of views and information - and why not playful - that Twitter has to offer. Anyway, surely, it will be a subject matter. But for the large mass of companies that respond to an owner or creative brain, it is a good idea to have two accounts,

This does not mean that we do not look for the online reputation of the brand or site, in the "institutional" account. This is a premise that goes from yours. But this is very different from the reputation or image of the engineer, creative or responsible writer. Remember that nobody knows what the future will hold for you, and that company or service site of which you are the proud father today, may disappear tomorrow. But you, and your professional contacts, fortunately, will continue to exist. And we already know that professional networking can be a good resource for professional insertion or for the development of new projects.

We are going to focus on the use of Twitter consumer support, which interests most of those who aspire to do business with the help of this microblogging portal. To elucidate this process, we will mark three orientative stages.

The zero moment, when we still don't have contacts or followers or customers.

The moment one, when we have managed to create a significant network of contacts, composed of leads and potential clients, and some real clients.

Moment two, after-sales support.

Undoubtedly, the urgency lies in moving from moment zero to one. And it is in this passage from "zero network" to "some network" where the greatest difficulty is usually found.

We will develop it in greater detail in future articles, but the key, both in these initial stages, and at the time of after-sales, is to offer added value. And this is how the interaction on Twitter should be addressed: as the possibility of bringing added value to the products we offer.

Let's think about our past experiences as consumers, and we can clearly see what it means. In fact, it is not necessary to go back to the past. One of the weakest points, and white of the largest number of complaints, is the lack of after-sales support from Google's cell phone, the Nexus One. Customers reported bitterly, that the only way to obtain after-sales support was by visiting certain sites (Consult the FAQs, the manual, the user forums and YouTube) or by mail, of doubtful repercussion. There was not, at the time of product launch, the possibility of really speaking with a person of flesh and blood that would explain to us what we were doing wrong that our blessed device was not working as we had expected. Without a doubt, and beyond that it is the Mountain View Giant,

Imagine the worst scenario. Consumers rebel against bad service and never buy a cell phone manufactured by Google again - I am not saying that it will happen, it is simply by way of illustration. Surely, Google will lose a few hundred or billions of dollars in the frustrating venture but will continue with its many business units, without retrying to sell or manufacture cell phones in the future. Google can take those licenses, and allow those "little" trips. But could you face a massive boycott of your current customers, due to poor after-sales service, and your massive migration to your competition? If the answer is negative, then you have to learn to use Twitter.