What on earth is Twitter, you may ask? How can it help my website and my business grow? Isn't this just a little toy that allows people to "tweet" what they are doing at any given moment? (i.e. "eating a bagel right now. Delicious") 

Welcome to the speed of light, internet version. Twitter has only been around for what seems like less than a year, and so far it still seems to sit just on the periphery of usefulness. But make no mistake about it, Twitter is about to become one of the most important marketing tools your website can employ, and it is wise to get on board and equip your site before the train takes off. 

Now, again, what IS Twitter? Twitter falls into the social networking category...along the lines of Facebook, MySpace, Digg, etc. Every social networking site has a purpose, that is, once the dust settles and the novelty wears off, each new internet sensation seems to find its own niche in the usefulness market.

Twitter is basically a "status update"...nothing more, nothing less. People often refer to it as "like Facebook, with just the status part." Users have exactly 140 characters to describe what they are doing at any given moment. 

Boring, right? After all, who is going to "follow" you, and why would you "follow" someone else just to see whether they are enjoying a ham sandwich or watching the Lakers game? 

Ah, but it is slowly but surely becoming so much more than that!  Twitter is becoming a method by which savvy businesses can increase their exposure on the internet and, accordingly, increase hits, clicks, and sales.

The key to exploiting the value of Twitter is to realize several things: 

1. Using your phone to tweet and to receive tweets is much more effective than using your computer.
2. You can feed your tweets directly to your website with just the right "widget," thus instantly updating your website on the go.
3. Google now indexes tweets, so having valuable content on your Twitter site becomes a new chunk of "content" to permeate the internet and thus potentially lead to your website.  

Let's look at each of those items above individually.

Phone:  First of all, logging on to the Twitter website is still a little odd and perhaps a bit cumbersome. It's just not a really "user friendly" interface. Using your phone, however, simplifies a lot. You can register your phone as the device that will allow you to not only tweet, but also receive tweets from people you are following. If you want to follow, say, Brian Williams from NBC News, you can "follow" him, and then note that you want to receive his tweets on your mobile device. 

Now, most of the news/business organizations who are "tweeting" have moved past the "I just ate a bagel" tweets. They have migrated to news updates such as "featuring special story about economic turnaround on Nightly News," or "2:00 hour will feature debate on health care." Those are merely alerts that may prompt you to tune in. If a million people are "following" NBC news, they have just reached a million people instantly with a promo for their program. 

Depending on your business, people may or may not decide to follow you via their phones. It all depends on whether you have compelling information to disseminate. If it's up-to-the-minute sales pricing for your products, then perhaps they will. 

But more than that, your phone allows you to tweet much more efficiently. You can be a passenger in a car or waiting for the dentist, and send a tweet that will go directly to your Twitter page, and, if you have the latest tools....

Directly to Your Website:  Imagine having the ability to update your website any time you want, on the go, using your phone. If you have installed the right tool (or "widget"), you can route your Twitter feed directly to your website in a live, streaming format. Imagine sitting on the tarmac of a flight waiting to pull away from the gate, and tweeting "Thanksgiving sale starts Monday at 6:00 a.m." and having that tweet go not only to your Twitter page, but also directly to your website, right on the front page, at the top of your tweet list. You have effectively updated your website and sent out a marketing promotion, all from row 34B on the flight bound for LAX. 

This kind of tool has many applications, the most important of which is the instant method by which you can update content on your website. As we all know, updated content means freshness, better search results, more time spent on the site, and ultimately, better sales.  But better yet...

Google Indexes Tweets: Google and Bing, MSN's reincarnation of a search engine, now index tweets. Read this article from PC Magazine for more. That means more exposure, plain and simple. You tweet about your products, services, sales, etc., and Google and Bing pick it up and index it. If someone searching for your product—be it eyeglasses, sweaters, web design or roofing—locates your tweet, and ultimately clicks through to your website, you win. 

It's all about harnessing the value of the new media, which are continually being created, finding their voice, and then allowing you to get on board to use them to improve your sales. 

If you have questions about this article or wish to discuss getting Twitter integrated into your website, do not hesitate to contact me at 513-349-9756. Meanwhile, follow me on Twitter! Search for cjtdigital.

Pat McCarty
CJT Digital Design