Tweet, tweet: Workshop gives businesses an intro to Twitter
By Nick Cenegy
Staff Writer
03-06-2009
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| Sherry Kerr gives tips about using Twitter to help business during a workshop at the Northeast Alabama Entrepreneurial Center in Anniston. Photo: Trent Penny/The Anniston Star |
A little online birdie has local business people all atwitter.
Twenty participants, representing crocheting businesses through city governments, met in a conference room at the Northeast Alabama Entrepreneurial Center Thursday in Anniston for an introduction to Twitter.
The aim: how to add "tweets" to a marketing plan and harness the power of the latest social networking trend.
The group Thursday ranged from those who were still learning how to e-mail, to those who freely rattled off in social networking jargon.
"I'm seeing every kind of business you can imagine benefiting from this," said Sherry Kerr, the seminar's presenter and owner of Anniston-based Outdoor Media Resources.
The avid twitterer took the time to break down the site's micro-blogging platform found at twitter.com, founded in March 2006. Twitter saw 4.43 million unique visitors in December 2008, Kerr said.
Kerr described the online interaction as similar to a cocktail party where a lot of conversations are happening at the same time. On the site, however, each comment or "tweet" in the conversation is limited to 140 words, she said. Anyone can sign up for a free account and set up a brief profile.
The site revolves around short answers to a single question: "What are you doing?"
For some people the platform is purely social, for others it can be used as a powerful tool to bounce ideas off of colleagues in the same industry, or survey potential customers, Kerr said.
"For businesses, it's a great way to see what other people are doing," she said
Kerr said businesses shouldn't talk to people solely about what they are selling. Others have used the site to find sales leads and find new customers, Kerr said.
Mother-daughter interior design team, Laura and Courtney Panneta, of Sylacauga-based Panneta Design, said after the seminar they are looking into blogging and twittering to develop business leads and shop around ideas.
The team does design work on residential and commercial properties, but plans to launch a new company that will offer gourmet foods, sauces and chutneys, Laura Panneta said.
Twitter may offer the perfect way to visit with gourmet foods businesses and research food processing equipment, she said.
"I think with it being free and in this economy, this could really help," Panneta said.
http://www.annistonstar.com/business/2009/as-biz-0306-ncenegy-9c05x3924.htm
