With events like the recent Iranian protests and the Mumbai terrorist attacks last autumn making Twitter the go-to place for immediate first-hand accounts, the site has become a household name for individuals and businesses alike.
In February alone, unique visits to the site rose astronomically -- 1,382% year-on-year, according to Nielsen Online. This came after the site posted 752% growth in traffic in 2008 compared with a year earlier.
"Twitter is the hottest communications tool we have right now," said Jay Oatway, a Hong Kong-based social media consultant and journalist (Twitter handle @JayOatway).
It's early days still. Twitter and other social media sites have established themselves as great person-to-person connectors: look at Hollywood star Ashton Kucher's (@aplusk) nearly 4 million followers. Now you cant tell me that Ashton Kucher himself is not a business, and I'm sure he profits by having 4 million people hang on his every word. But corporate users are still discovering their potential role and to a lesser degree playing catch up.
The latest of the web's never-ending communications evolutions, Twitter combines the character limit of text messaging with the speed of instant messaging but through a customisable webpage similar to Facebook or LinkedIn.
Only a few corporations really engage their customers through social media. The latest Engagement report, ranks the social media engagement among companies selected by BusinessWeek as the top 100 global brands. It considers Starbucks the most engaged, with its online discussion forums, a blog, and its accounts on social sites such as Facebook, Flickr and LinkedIn, not to mention YouTube and Twitter.
The least engaged is AIG, with only a LinkedIn account. This is understandable when the only people who want to talk to you are protesting your taxpayer-funded bonus scheme, but it is also indicative of the financial industry's general lack of presence among social media.
source www.financeasia.com
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