Many conversations have shifted to Twitter. It has become more than just a networking tool. Business is being transacted there.

For my company, Twitter is a the perfect place to fulfill the need for people seeking information and tools for social media monitoring. There is an expressed need and my team and I offer our assistance. So for B2C and B2B companies, Twitter has huge opportunities if your potential customers are there.

I have noticed a shift from people using email to their reliance on direct messages in Twitter. I first noticed this in the end of December and it is becoming more apparent. There are two things:

1. People expect an immediate response via Twitter

  • I don’t have it open all the time
  • Twitter quit emailing me notifications of DM’s in mid-December
  • I monitor email all the time

2. DM’s scare me in regard to archiving messages because:

  • They’re not searchable
  • Management of messages in Twitter is difficult – it’s one message at a time to delete

These are the solutions that I’ve come up with:

Set up Tweet Deck. I like the columns so that I can see the following:

  • Direct Messages, Replies, Search: Techrigy, Search: ‘an industry term’, my coworkers

I still do not have it open all the time though. Sometimes it’s two hrs between checking it. It’s easier to have it in the background. Maybe I will need to shift my focus to Twitter rather than email?

For the archival issue, I did find that Tweet Deck has the option to email tweets to yourself (or anyone). I’ve been using this for DM’s that I want to archive.

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My last post was on ‘Digital Body Language’ and communicating in the other’s person’s chosen method, so these are the accommodations I’ve made. What have you noticed in regard to social networking and people’s expectations? Has it affected how you’re doing business?


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