There is no hiding the fact that I’m not a fan of the way the masses are currently using Twitter. The problem is not with the service itself as much as it is with the people using it. With that in mind, here are several innovative ways in which Twitter is being used or can be used to better connect with your readers/customers.
Twitter Commerce
The first innovative use of Twitter is brought to you by Mashable. Kristen points to the online daily deal store Woot and how they are using Twitter to provide potential customers with snippets of information. By adding Woot to your friends on Twitter, you can follow the deal of the day from the site through its Twitter feed.
The way in which information is fed through Twitter is perfect for the distribution manner of Woot. Short and sweet. The deals on Woot are available for a limited time, and getting the word out fast and far is imperative to Woot’s strategy.
Similar strategies can easily be adapted for use by sites such as Deal Sea, Ebay, and so on.
Twitter Updates
For most consumers, when we acquire a piece of software, we are more concerned with downloading and installing the latest patches or updates for it, than we are in learning what exactly those patches do and which specific bugs were fixed. Of course you could get something like VersionTracker Pro, but not everyone wants to pay to keep their software cataloged and up-to-date. This is where Twitter comes in.
Let’s take Firefox for example. While you can read the release notes regarding version 2.0.0.3 on the site, I just want to know that it is available and a link to where I can get it from. Both of these things don’t require a blog post, rather can be quite efficiently be accomplished by using a Twitter feed. Taking it one step further, if you can combine the Twitter feeds of all the softwares you use, you can easily keep on top of the latest releases and keep your system up-to-date without having to trudge to paragraphs upon paragraphs of information that you just don’t care about. Burn all the software-companies’ Twitter feeds into one RSS feed and you’re done.
Twitter Brainstorming
The idea that intrigues me the most is something that can be useful internally, for companies going through the product development phase. Imagine you’re in the car, and you just think of that killer feature that your new application must have; a feature that ensures market domination, and you have no where to jot it down or share it with other developers. Simply use your cell phone to text your idea to the product development team Twitter feed, and let them other look at it right away. Of course you will want to make your feed available only to friends and friend only people on the development team.
Can you think of any other innovative ways to use Twitter?
Muhammad Saleem
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Some great ideas there, Muhammad. Twitter is a tool for sharing little chunks of information in a quick, convenient way. As such, it can definitely be used in other ways than for purely personal rants. I personally like the idea of delivering quick, timely news items on a certain topic.
For someone who doesn’t like Twitter, you sure write about it a lot :)
Twitter becomes a useful application with the SMS feature, hence it’s explosion at SXSW. It’s dodge ball where everyone is the fat kid.
If firefox starts sending me updates on my cell phone to let me know that there’s a new download ready, how exactly is that a good thing? ;)
I just spend an hour playing around with Twitter for the first time. I understand the concept but don’t understand what value we can get out of using it? You make some good innovative points on how it ‘could’ be used. But why waste our time using something like this? Does it really provide any value?
There is no hiding the fact that I’m not a fan of the way the masses are currently using Twitter.
What is with how we should and should not use Twitter?
I love that you aren’t a fan of twitter yet you can come up with some practical, valuable uses!
Twitter is a great tool for widely distributed families. Build a family twitter network, and the kid in school can provide updates to the whole family without having to remember to call home.
Got a very ill friend or famiy member? Twitter updates can keep everyone in the loop, and supportive communications going without putting too much of a communications burden on the people undergoing the stress of treatment and research.
Got a mobile party going? Twitter can keep your best friends moving from club to club all night long.
Fast communications to tiny, and discreet networks? There are plenty of good uses for that in life.
If you have a fairly large group of friends on twitter, it might be useful for broadcasting needs. As in, “I need to find a good outsourced bookkeeping service,” “What’s the deal with tankless water heaters? .. anyone have any experience.” In this way, it’s like any other trusted network. You float ideas out there & see if anything comes back that’s worthwhile.
I am using Twitter to update the status of my online comic. Since it is hosted on a free site, sometimes the update schedule gets behind, or I am not at my desk to upload the latest comic. It is nice to have a way to let my readers know what is going on without having to to rely on the site’s updater, or even being at my desk.
Julie, I LOVE your idea. Wish so badly that idea would work for my extended family.