It’s everything from a low cost marketing machine to a revolutionary political tool; a platform for pointless babble, a news source and an opportunity for self promotion. It has been touted as invaluable to businesses’ marketing strategies, and also dubbed a waste of time. Regardless, Twitter is growing by leaps and bounds, especially in the business world. In the San Fernando Valley, businesses are starting to tread through this new territory, stumbling their way through, trying to figure it out. “I think that it can be a good thing for business but you have to do it constructively,” said certified speaking professional Jodi Walker, President and Founder of Success Alliances in Valencia. Walker just recently began exploring the online tool in the business realm. “The key is if you’re using social networking for business, to make sure that what you’re saying adds value. Obviously there are benefits to it, but I think you have to be strategic.” Josh Gertler, President of Consensus Inc., a public affairs firm that concentrates around development and transportation issues, said online tools such as Twitter have dramatically enhanced the way his company does business. “By way of social media tools and those platforms, we’re able to cast a net a lot wider and engage al lot more people that would typically be involved in a discussion about a potential project in their neighborhoods,” he said. Through Twitter and other online tools that promote a peer-to-peer model for disseminating information, neighbors themselves have become powerful advocates. Twitter has helped the company activate that silent majority of residents that typically will not participate in discussions about new projects and developments that will not impact them adversely, but which they might view as positive for their neighborhoods. “We use Twitter everyday to help pave the way for change or advance a cause of one of our clients,” he said. The technology not only gives the community a voice as traditional media outlets continue to erode, he said, but it also allows them to engage in a manner that is convenient to them; neighbors are no longer limited to attending a community meeting, for example. “This is a really important element of any marketing strategy, but it’s not a complete marketing strategy,” said Angela Fentiman, director of external affairs for the Valley Industry and Commerce Association. VICA started “tweeting” regularly about a month ago. “For businesses there’s definitely an opportunity to engage your customers, not just send messages, but really get that valuable feedback.” In the last weeks, as the ‘Think Santa Clarita Campaign tweeted about where to get $10 off on a smog test, and Woodbury University asked followers on Twitter if they knew about a time capsule at the campus, VICA tweeted live as a question and answer session took place with elected officials at its annual luncheon. “Some of the questions that were asked are extremely important to the business community,” said Stuart Waldman, President of VICA. “Tweeting at the event was an opportunity for VICA to share important and relevant information with those that could not be at the sold-out event, as well as the broader business community.” Since VICA decided to make an incursion into the Twitter world, Waldman has been incorporating it into the organization’s advocacy strategy, tweeting from City Council sessions and committee meetings. “So if I’m on my way to City Council and there’s an issue that’s coming up I can Tweet that issue to let our members know to call their council members, send an e-mail, write a letter, even show up,” he said. Via Twitter, VICA can share its positions on issues and instantly and directly keep people in the loop of what’s going on at their end, he added. “We’re using Twitter, we’re using Facebook, anything we can to promote our issues. A lot of the times I’ll get a call from someone who says, ‘hey Stuart, thanks for going to Council today. We appreciate that’ because they saw my Twitter,” said Waldman. Although VICA has received some feedback since it began using Twitter, Fentiman said so far there has been no direct evidence or correlation between those efforts and increased membership. Twitter, in the business setting, can be used to drive traffic to company websites and blogs, to communicate with new and existing business contacts, and promote products. It can also be used for market research and customer service as Twitter allows users to search across all tweets in real time for certain keywords, for example a brand name or news item. Some, like Ryan Wunderlich, a Certified Insurance Counselor at USI of Southern California, are still not convinced about its business merits, however. “When I think Twitter I think 16-year-old girl and entertainment celebrities,” he said. Twitter has been associated with messages that fall into the “I’m eating a sandwich” category or with those that share personal information. For instance, when Twitter Chief Executive Evan Williams and his wife, Sara, had their first baby recently, more than 16,000 followers received Twitter updates from the time her water broke to the baby’s first diaper. Last week thousands of stargazers also connected via Twitter, sharing sights of the annual Perseid Meteor Shower through “Twitter Meteorwatch” parties held across the world. But the business world has been slow to catch on. A few large companies like Coca Cola have created new positions to lead the charge on social networking efforts and some companies pay bloggers for every post about their product or service. For the most part, businesses are just learning to navigate the world of social networking. Some like Gertler from Consensus Inc. consider themselves ahead of the game. His company has been using online tools such as Twitter for more than a year. “Traditional media is changing and you can either follow the change or you can lead the change and we believe in leading the change.”
