Now that so many people have a website the next Internet wave has reached Germany: Twitter. This short message service is really simple to use and this is where the success factor comes in.

If, as a company, you want to keep in contact with the market, you have to quickly develop your own strategy. After all, users have long been active in this simple version of the social web. Thus, 140-character long messages also start to become relevant for companies. The new medium can be used for PR work, sales and customer service. Here you'll find the most important steps to develop your own Twitter strategy.

1. Secure your own name
If you were too late on the web, your domain name had already been given to someone else. But domain registration is a barrier. With Twitter a name can be reserved with just a few mouse clicks: fill in four form fields and you're ready to go. So, register asap.

2. Define senders
Who should be allowed to twitter in your company? You have five options:
a. You twitter as a private individual
b. You show yourself with name and photo, but in your role as an employee of the company
c. You twitter as a person, but under your company's logo and name
d. You remain anonymous, only under the company's name with no people named
e. You have a separate Twitter feed with product name and logo for every product

3. Define objectives
What do you want to achieve from Twitter? Do you want to find potential customers who are looking for a solution on Twitter? There have been many short messages asking things such as "can anyone recommend a good provider for XY?" Or do you want to sell your products offensively? On the social web that often fails. Dell, however, has been successful in developing a fan club of a third of a million followers for its outlet. Or do you simply want a presence and to answer customers' questions? For many companies this will be the answer, since in the USA an increasing number of customers are getting used to the idea of "calling" via Twitter.

4. Define target groups
Who will read your messages? Only friends and acquaintances? Or are you writing for your professional contacts? Will you only have people you know well as followers, or is every fleeting acquaintance a friend to you? What linguistic style does your target group expect?  In the current pioneering phase everything is very easy-going with Twitter. But that won't remain so once Twitter has established itself as an official window to customers.

5. Find content
If you've got nothing to tell, you won't find any readers. Like an e-mail newsletter, relevance is very important with Twitter. The following options are available:

• Products and special offers like Dell, Aldi, or Tchibo (the latter are still waiting)
• News from the industry or from your company
• Links to interesting websites and blogs
• Professional issues that you are concerned about
• Things that happen to you in your daily life
• Descriptions of your private activities
  

It certainly creates trust when you also get to know employees as human beings. But can a German company handle such uncontrollable business communication? In any case, it is advisable to have an editorial concept clearly stating who can twitter about what.

6. Estimate the expenditure
How much expenditure is Twitter worth to you? Do you really want to write something ten times a day? Twitter is not practical as a tool if you are silent for weeks on end.

7. Observe
One thing you should do in any case: listen whether people have perhaps already been twittering about you for some time. Define search terms and use the Advanced Search functions at search.twitter.com. Bookmark your routine searches. Have twe2 SMS you as soon as your name comes up in a conversation. And have a look around you to see if anyone close to you is twittering.
 
8. To follow or not to follow
A question that keeps coming up is: who should you follow. I handle the issue like this:  under my personal address twitter.com/DocS I follow only people that I know. The information portal Absolit.de, on the other hand, is a brand. If you out yourself as a follower of this brand at twitter.com/absolit, you deserve that the brand also returns your trust. Therefore, this is where I follow all followers – apart from those who are obviously dubious. I would advise against automatic following. But the situation with my Books is quite different: they only follow themselves.

Finally you have the unfollow option.  If you click "remove" in your follower list, the friendship is finished. You also have the same option in your following list: If someone doesn't want to respond to your attempts to contact them, simply remove them. But you have to remember that you will no longer be able to read the important messages from this Twitter feed – if they really were important.

Autor
Dr. Schwarz
Melanchthonstr. 5
D-68753 Waghäusel
Tel.: 07254 95773-0
info@absolit.de