What was that I heard? A Twitter?

Twitter is the social networking/micro-blogging site that asks the question "what are you doing?" Members are allowed to post messages of up to 140 characters long to answer that question, and keep tabs on the friends they've added to their account. When ever a friend updates, you can see it on the site, or choose to receive an SMS message to your mobile device.

To eMarketers, the appeal should be pretty simple. Consumers can add your Twitter site to their list of friends, and keep tabs of whatever updates or special offers you have to send out. This is another very compelling and engaging way to communicate with your customers. They are actively opted in to your messages as a friend, so they want to hear what you have to say.

As with all forms of marketing, but especially social networks like this, one has to be careful not to inundate consumers with marketing messages. If you're sending a sales pitch to your customers ever hour, they'll quickly get tired of your messages, and block you out. However, if you can provide useful information, with the occasional promo mixed in, at an acceptable frequency to your consumers, then there is much potential for success.

Some organizations are already taking advantage of this young app. Here are some samples:

Barack Obama
Dell Outlet
Portland Trailblazers

Note the nature of the special offers on the Dell Outlet Twitter page - special offers that are only good for 25 minutes! This company is doing an excellent job of leveraging the instant nature of the network to provide the most benefit for customers, as well as keeping the offer limited to a select few.

As a question to readers - has anyone here tried to leverage Twitter for their marketing, or thought about it?