Thread: Business Twitter / Facebook

Originally Posted by HostPost-David

1. Does anyone here use any of theses for business use?

2. How effective is it and how do you use it?

1x Twitter account, 1x Facebook account.

Very effective - Consider it a highly customized PR tool (as standard PR obviously wont work on Twitter), so that people are kept in the loop as to what we are doing - so it is being used to promote/ generate brand awareness (I don't think Twitter would work at all well if you used it as a means to try and directly sell through your tweets).

Facebook is much the same on a diferent medium, with the added benefit of being able to upload media direct (rather than hoping users will click a shortened url link), but is far far far more intimate as it requires users to actually make the decision to become a fan.

We also monitor posts on Twitter for key works (such as company name.etc) to see what people are saying about us, and will in most cases thank them for the tweet, and retweet it ourselves.

I also had a very very brief look at very much over-hyped Google Wave... which I can't realistically see as being a competitor to Twitter any time soon, and like with most people - I'm trying to find a use for it.

if it was a PPC for web hosting, i'm not surprised that you didnt get much interest - I suspect that 90% of facebook users dont pay much attention to the adverts/ have a website and the rest either block advertising .etc

Facebook is a perfect medium for an established firm selling tangible goods (i.e, Nike, Apple, Dell, Next.etc), but for anything else (especially hosting), you're better off trying to use it as a way to connect with existing customers and keeping them loyal.

We twitter, only a recent thing for us in the past couple of months but followers are building. It's a great way to reach friends/colleagues of customers, because when your customer follows you and interatcs, people who follow them join in and follow you too.

If you're looking at social marketing, I'd say have a look at things like Linked in as well. That's works well for me. Depends on your market, but that is definitely a business market.

I think Matt hits the nail on the head there.

I've been running social networking marketing for 2 different clients the last 6 months, for very generic every day products, and my they do work!

I was cynical at first about having INX (game servers) on Facebook. But to my surprise within just a few days we've boomed to nearly 150 members from about 30 mins marketing. And from that a fair few sales, and a buzz and product interest.

It can really work.

For web hosting, I'm not sure. If you take the Dreamhost approach, I can envisage it would fantastically (I follow a few of the web hosts on there myself to pick up some tips).

If you are the straight edge, serious, business host, perhaps not so much.

What I think would be worse, is exactly the same as companies that run forums. If you are going to run it, first calculate how much time is going to be needed, how much that's going to cost, and if you do go ahead- make sure its very active (on a daily basis at least).

Otherwise if anything it's going to have a derogatory effect (no-one is going to buy from a graveyard!)

Best of luck!

We've been using Twitter and it has been good for us. We were thinking about creating a Facebook page but aren't expecting a lot from it to be honest.

Originally Posted by burble

****egy inc. boutique bespoke tweets

Haha thats a great name and strap line.

Originally Posted by Andrew

I also had a very very brief look at very much over-hyped Google Wave... which I can't realistically see as being a competitor to Twitter any time soon, and like with most people - I'm trying to find a use for it.

We too had problems finding a use for it. It's a nice idea, but it's lacking in many areas still and isn't that convenient to use.

Is anyone using it regularly and finding it helps them?

I actually forgot about it until I read this post.