7 Ways Twitter Can Help Your Business

More and more people are using Twitter for business. There are plenty of ways that companies can make use of Twitter and other social media platforms. Not only can companies market to prospective customers, but they can build their brand, manage their employees online, communicate with current customers, and more. This is particularly true with the various Twitter tools available today. Here are seven ways to you can use Twitter for business.
1. Build your company brand. Image is important, whether your company is brick and mortar or solely online. It is important to promote your brand while connecting with real people who could eventually buy your products and services. With a Twitter tool like MarketMeSuite, this can be accomplished easily. MarketMeSuite includes a paid service that allows you to manage multiple accounts and profiles, RSS feeds, scheduled tweets and more. Rather than the bottom of your tweet stating "TweetDeck" or another application, it will provide a link to your website.
2. Drive traffic to your company website. Aside from using an application like MarketMeSuite to link your website under every post, you can tweet links to the latest news, blog posts, and articles on your website. There is nothing wrong with a little shameless self-promotion, as long as you don't overdo it (and don't spam anyone).
3. Connect with employees and manage business. Twitter is an easy way to post updates about meetings, policies, business trips, and connect with the ever-important public pool of potential clients. With a Twitter tool like Hashwork, you can privately connect with other members in the company. The tweets that you set for internal members only will not be seen by the public. You can also post live tweets through Hashwork and attach various types of files.
4. Find freelancers or new employees. If you are looking to hire someone for a project or have an open position in your company, you may be able to find the person you are looking for by doing a search. You can tweet your job ad to get responses as well as research profiles and direct message people that you are interested in interviewing.
5. Keep customers in the loop. Post about sales, new products, new services, and anything related to your industry. Linking to news about your field can boost your credibility and earn followers. You can also set up your company's blog RSS on TwitterFeed so that followers have instant access to your latest posts.
6. Find new customers or clients. Use Twitter search to find people posting about topics that are relevant to your products and/or services. You can send @replies and recommend things to people who are interested or start a private conversation with them with a direct message. Avoid sending unsolicited suggestions, and try to build relationships rather than push advertisements. Sometimes just tweeting about what your company offers can gain you followers who then become paying customers.
7. Network and build credibility. People want to know that there are real human beings operating your company. Post interesting things, read and respond to what other people have to say, and make connections with no strings attached. Present yourself as knowledgeable in your field and build relationships just for the sake of connecting with people. It brings more than monetary rewards your way, and it is well worth the time.
By using appropriate Twitter tools and making an effort to engage with this inescapably popular online community, you can build your business, increase clientele, and best of all find friends.

By the way, if you'd like to see the coolest Twitter applications on the web, visit My Twitter Toolbox at http://MyTwitterToolbox.com. With more than 250 Twitter tools for productivity and fun, you'll discover everything you need in one spot to be incredibly effective with Twitter.
If you really want to know how to use Twitter and other social marketing tools, check out this 60-minute audio with four of the top online marketers in the business as they reveal their top strategies for social marketing.
This article is taken from- http://ezinearticles.com/?7-Ways-Twitter-Can-Help-Your-Business&id=5393331

Social media marketing

Social media marketing is a recent addition to organizations’ integrated marketing communications plans. Integrated marketing communications is a principle organizations follow to connect with their targeted markets. Integrated marketing communications coordinates the elements of the promotional mix;advertising, personal selling, public relations, publicity, direct marketing, and sales promotion.^[1] In the traditional marketing communications model, the content, frequency, timing, and medium of communications by the organization is in collaboration with an external agent, i.e. advertising agencies, marketing research firms, and public relations firms.^[2] However, the growth of social media has impacted the way organizations communicate. With the emergence of Web 2.0, the internet provides a set of tools that allow people to build social and business connections, share information and collaborate on projects online.^[3]
Social media marketing programs usually center on efforts to create content that attracts attention and encourages readers to share it with their social networks. A corporate message spreads from user to user and presumably resonates because it is coming from a trusted source, as opposed to the brand or company itself.
Social media has become a platform that is easily accessible to anyone with internet access, opening doors for organizations to increase their brand awareness and facilitate conversations with the customer. Additionally, social media serves as a relatively inexpensive platform for organizations to implement marketing campaigns. Organizations can receive direct feedback from their customers and targeted markets.

[edit] Platforms

Social media marketing which is known as SMO Social Media Optimization benefits organizations and individuals by providing an additional channel for customer support, a means to gain customer and competitive insight, and a method of managing their reputation online. Key factors that ensure its success are its relevance to the customer, the value it provides them with and the strength of the foundation on which it is built. A strong foundation serves as a stand or platform in which the organization can centralize its information and direct customers on its recent developments via other social media channels, such as article and press release publications.^[4]
The most popular platforms include:

• Facebook
• YouTube
• LinkedIn
• Twitter
• MySpace
• Reddit
• Delicious
• More...

This article is taken from- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_media_marketing