Here is yet another article that supports big businesses using Twitter. In my book I go into great detail about using Twitter to build your brand and here is some more confirmation.
From the Business Journal
Online retail giant Amazon.com is boosting its use of Twitter, the popular micro-blogging service, to get the word out about product deals and services.
Amazon appears to have started using Twitter in 2007, and has attracted thousands of followers to updates on its MP3 digital music service, product deals and video game offerings. In recent months, Amazon has made new forays into Twitter, setting up accounts for its payments service and wishlist feature.
It’s unclear how much web traffic and revenue Amazon is deriving from Twitter. But Seattle-based Amazon is part of a growing list of companies, including Comcast, Dell, Starbucks, and Whole Foods, that are experimenting with the service to build buzz around products and drive web traffic and sales.
Ben Weisman, digital director for the New York office of marketing agency Iris Nation, said Amazon is “absolutely on the front lines” of using Twitter and said the online retailer needs to have a presence there to stay connected to its online user base.
“It’s important for brands to take a look at where their user base is and engage them because if they don’t, someone else will,” said Weisman, who specializes in social networks.
Twitter allows users to send text-based updates, known as “tweets,” and read the tweets of others. The short, 140-character updates can be sent via mobile phone or the web.
Twitter, which is a free service, has attracted legions of users but is still trying to work out a revenue model.
Amazon’s relationship with Twitter goes deeper than just marketing. Amazon.com founder and CEO Jeff Bezos was an early personal investor in Twitter through his private firm Bezos Expeditions, and Twitter uses Amazon’s web service S3 to store user profile photos and back up data.
Amazon spokesman Craig Berman confirmed some of the Amazon Twitter accounts, but declined to provide additional details, saying that “we are constantly experimenting with ways to make it easier for customers to find, discover and buy anything they may want on the internet.”
A number of Amazon employees, including Chief Technology Officer Werner Vogels and Web Services Evangelist Jeff Barr, are also heavy users of Twitter.
If Amazon, Starbucks and Whole Foods are using Twitter to build their business brand shouldn’t you? If you are just now learning about Twitter and wondering if it’s for you, check out the new eBook “How & Why to Tweet” From the Twitter Fairy. It’s a comprehensive how-to guide that teaches not only how to get started on Twitter but also how to build the YOU brand and how to avoid the “Kiss of Death” .
What say you? How do you think Businesses should brand themselves on Twitter?
