50 Ideas on Using Twitter for Business

I recently read Chris Brogan's 50 Ideas on Using Twitter for Business. This is an excellent list for those who are using Twitter for a corporation, self-owned business, or for personal purposes.

Until this Fall, I did not see a need to have a Twitter account for myself. I finally came to the realization that not only is it a great way to promote business, but it is also a great way to put yourself out there in the business world. Also, who could have predicted how amazing it would be to see what others in your field as well as competitors are up to and getting excited about.

The list put together by Brogan is a very comprehensive list, but to make it even better, there are some 200 comments by readers about other ways to use Twitter for your business.

This list should be enough to get anyone to, at least, consider hopping on the Twitter train with the other few million people out there. However, we all know people out there who are not quite so tech-savvy, and Twitter knows that too. So, they have included a Help page for those of you just starting out, along with a How-to video.

Evolution of PR

I just finished reading a blog post on davefleet.com about social media and how it should tie in to the world of public relations. This blog was suggested by Ellen Mrja on her Twitter account.

This blog post asks a very simple question: Does social media let everyone act as their own PR agency? The answer is simple. No, social media does not give everyone the skills to be a PR agency.

PR is not something you can just jump into a be great at. While people can be good at one or more aspects of PR, there is no way you can decide to do PR and be instantly good, or even great, at all the facets of the business.

It can be compared to journalism. You may be a good writer, but unless you know how to write in AP Style or a specific paper or magazine's style, you will not be a very good match for any publication and will not get published. This is the same with pretty much any profession.

PR is not an easy industry to make it in, even if you have training in it. As I said before, you need to know at least a little about everything from writing to pitching ideas to creating and designing a website. There is so much that can be done that clients expect to be represented in every way possible.

This means expanding to blogging, Facebook, Twitter and any other form of electronic media. Everyone uses them, so clients want to be represented on them all in order to get their name out there.

That being said, it would be very valuable for all PR agencies to expand to social media sites and to require that knowing how to use and navigate these sites.