Twitter and Time Management

The immediacy of Twitter is exciting, but the usefulness of it takes a little while to become apparent. Following celebrity lives is one predictable function, but more serious business uses can be found:

• tweet news of your latest products/services to your clients (assuming they 'follow' you -- something that you can encourage)


• tweet interesting links/information in your business field (don't just promote yourself relentlessly)


• encourage informal feedback from your customer base, or from potential customers


• listen to leading thinkers/businesses in your field, follow up on some of the suggested links/hints.


• Programs like TweetDeck can help you keep track of everyone you find interesting in the world of Twitter.

Twitter's truncated, telegraphic form cuts a lot of the clutter found in the rest of the web. It also presents very low entry barriers, and if you only send a couple of tweets a day and read a few more, represents less of a time commitment than a blog. The web is a very important business frontier, and tweeters are often right out on the bleeding edge.