What’s Working in Marketing

All entrepreneurs dream of the hockey stick shaped growth curve. Twitter has now clearly hit that mark. According to ComScore Media Metrix, the number of visitors to Twitter.com increased by 131% from February to March 2009, reaching 9.3 million.

Of course, now they need to add revenue and profits to make that curve really meaningful

We’ve been analyzing some of the tech business sectors and their presence on Twitter. It’s still early days for many, but there’s definitely a future for Twitter in business communications.

The biggest challenge is for companies to move beyond corporate-speak and learn to talk with customers and prospects in a natural, more personal way. We told one client, who writes a great technical blog, to let his personality shine through. He’s got a great sense of humor. The whole reason the Web 2.0 mediums are experiencing such phenomenal growth is that people want a different way to interact.

Not surprisingly, the most Internet savvy people are able to make the transition fairly easily. Take these Twitter posts from @Google:

True fact: 64% of Apps fans have checked their Gmail from the toilet. Tell us how obsessive you are – http://bitly.com/2kiaDW

Reading @computerworld interview with Alfred Spector, our VP for research – some ideas on future of search http://bitly.com/18RTOS

uh oh, prolonged stop in central Kansas required search for [how to jump start a car battery] http://bit.ly/9RptH #roadtrip

These posts are superb ways to tell stories about the usefulness and ubiquity of Google products. Don’t just cut and paste lead-ins from press releases. Type what you would say if you were face-to-face with a customer. Be original, be down to earth, be interesting.