A world of information in 140 characters

A world of Information in 140 characters can only mean one thing - TWITTER!!  I joined a company back in 2009 and was responsible for their social media strategy, or so I thought.

"Lets use twitter" says I,
"Lets not" says them
"Its a way of developing a following and interacting with our customers" says I
"Its a load of rubbish" says them.

In the end, I won a hollow victory but they would not tweet effectively.  To be of use, twitter, like a blog needs to be used regularly and be relevant.

Twitter needs to get over the stigma of personal tweets, "Just got up, feeling crabby", "Just eaten an egg!" even from celebrities, its hard to justify anyone wanting to be interested in this stuff.

However, many companies are building there business on twitter and their relationship with customers.  Part of the reason is that twitter is more than 140 characters.  The 140 characters can be used as an appetizer to something bigger more useful, that has an infinite number of characters.  The attachment facility of twitter creates the communication power that twitter is.

Companies use twitter to direct their customers to their websites, deliver special offers, communicate customer service records, build communities.

A community driven website that appeals to me is "Make it and Mend it" which is the brain child of four women – Clare Flynn, Clare O’Brien, Hilary Bruffell and Anne Caborn. The aim is to grow a community keen to share ideas and inspiration and which empowers everyone to re-use more and throw away less.  This coven of commercially astute women have used the full gamut of social media channels including twitter @makeitandmendit, to build their community.  In this throwaway community that contradicts its self with concerns about the environment and conservation, MIAMI hits the mark for many housewives and quite a few of their husbands too.

However, focusing on the twitter aspect of MAMI, this has been used strategically and effectively to build up   the audience and at the same time has been beneficial to other businesses that support the ethos of reuseability and recycling such as Lucy Robert who makes some weird and wonderful home craft items.

Twitter has built up businesses greater than MAMI and is a useful communication tool that can be as powerful as to build a multi million pound business or as useless as telling every one about your breakfast.

Know more about the power of the tweet, now go and open up your own account at www.twitter.com and follow me @kappacino, MAMI @makeitandmendit, search what interests you and follow twitterers who interest you. Visit www.makeitandmendit.com and become a member.