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June 20, 2009 -- For those who thought Twitter was just a fad, I guess there's a lesson in what is happening in Iran. Going to the Twitter site and entering the search terms #iranelection and #gr88 yields an avalance of short messages, mostly from iran, about what is going on in <140 character bursts. For example, one mesage I see says "confirmed: Multiple srcs confirm Basij [Iranian security forces] are at hospitals. Go to embassies." Another message provides a link to a list of embassies accepting the wounded. On Tuesday, Twitter, recognizing the importance of 9ts site, postponed maintenance scheduled for early in the morning here, but during the day there, so coverage woud not be interrupted. While I believe it is incorrect to call it a "Twitter revolution" (see this interview with Gaurav Mishra), twitter's iis playing an important, if not critical, role. Does this tell us anything about how small businesses and nonprofits can use Twitter to enhance our missions?
I think so. Let me start with a story that i saw on the blog of an Internet marketing company. One of their clients, a restuarant, had been collecting Twitter id's from customers for a few weeks and had a couple of dozen. They decided to do a promotion, virtually giving away meals. Instead of the 12-20 responses they expected, they were overwhelmed with something like 100 guests, had a hard time seating and serving those who showed up, and, ultimately, ran out of food. I was going to put a link to this story in my eNewsletter, but when I went back to the site to collect the URL, the story was gone, replaced by another story that put the events in a very different and less dramatic context. I inquired about what had happened to the story and was told the restaurant's owner had wanted it taken down.
So, you're a non-profit or a small business, not a restaurant and certainly not one of the Iranian protestors. Well, if you have a good website, you're putting news on it on a regular basis. However, people don't automatically keep going back to a website. If they are following your organization's twitter account you can announce the new blog post, promotion or appointment announcement, new service you are offering, or whatever on Twitter and it will get to your audience. Now, there's also an app that will upload what you post on twitter to Facebook (you do have a facebook page, don't you?). Do you see where I'm going with this.
Twitter should be part of your marketing strategy for rallying your c;ientele or, in the case of nonprofits, your supporters. It boosts the efficiency of your website.
Which is to say, you need to figure out what audience's you are trying to reach and build a strategy to keep them in the loop.
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