Twitter as Research Tool

If you're not using Twitter yet, here's another reason why it can be a powerful tool for your business. 

On Saturday I was sitting at a Starbucks, just about the only place in Ft. Bragg that I could get a wifi connection, killing time before I was to be at the Mendocino Coast Writers Conference. I was prepping for my presentation to a group of about 100 authors about why they need to use the Internet and blogs in particular to market their books.

Out of curiosity, I decided to throw out a question to my Twitter followers:
Within a couple of minutes I had a bunch of responses.

More responses...

There was nothing new or groundbreaking in the responses, but two things were accomplished:

1. I strengthened my relationships with colleagues by reaching out and tapping into their wisdom. You never know what you'll learn or who you'll connect with.

2. I was able to demonstrate the power of social networking to my audience of authors by sharing this story and information with them. I was able to demonstrate how and why it's important to be participating online.

Take a look at the responses. You'll see a theme or two: you've got to be creative about how you market your book and don't confine yourself to the traditional book.  How many different ways can you format the content?

Back to my original point. Twitter is a powerful research tool so take the leap and start using it for your business!

Follow me on Twitter.

Comments

[Timothy]

You used Twitter to execute the Crawford Slip method, a 1920's method for generating ideas.

http://www.mycoted.com/Crawford_Slip_Writing

[Krishna De]

Denise you are welcome - glad we helped your research from as far away as Ireland.

Krishna
twitter.com/krishnade

[Marlive Harris]

Oh my goodness Denise, I had no idea that I fired off that many tweets to you -LOL!

Thank you so much for allowing me to share ideas and to help you visually show authors how this simple social networking application can strengthen and enhance business relationships! This post is first-rate and one that I will be referring others to; again, thank you!

Marlive
twitter.com/thegritsdotcom

[Carol Dickson-Carr]

Hi Denise,

It was fun to watch your research happen realtime--live and transparent. And even if the information isn't necessarily new or groundbreaking, it sure does illustrate a point!

I've gotten many a tips faster from asking questions on Twitter than if I had done a Google search or Yahoo Answers on my own. :)

Thanks for sharing your results!

Carol, who is armed will all sorts of knowledge on how to maximize the iPhone I shall be picking up this evening b/c of Twitter! @ProfCarol

[Todd Jordan]

Thanks for sharing this. Good example of a fine use of Twitter and the connections one can make there.

[Kathleen Gage]

Wow Denise! Once again you deliver ground breaking information. I would not have thought to use Twitter this way. I was using more of a "delivery" of information, rather than a conversation with my peers.

All I can say is, "You Rock!"

Kathleen Gage
The Street Smarts Marketer

[internet marketing company]

I'm also using this must significant Twitter tool since a long time and it is really trust worthy. This is an add on in the power of social media and social networking.