I have put together some diagrams I use to illustrate to clients a model that twitter could be used for in their businesses I thought I would share them with you guys.  Any comments on them are of course welcome and they are pretty simple, if I tried to illustrate them completely they would still be growing.

Twitter in your Business – The Communication Model

This first model is pretty standard stuff but its not how it is set up more how it is focused and what the aim of the model is. Click on the image below for a full size version.

The communication model, as I see it simply illustrates exactly what twitter has been created to do.  Create accessible lines of communication between individuals.  In this case the individual is representing you or your company with an aim to raise awareness of a product or service on a social level.

Don’t make the mistake of thinking that its a way of gaining mass followers and then ramming a sales pitch down their throat, if your really out to do your business harm then that’s definitely the way to go about it. If you want my opinion on how to run your twitter profile effectively then take a minute and read through this post titled

Twitter Follower Count – The real benefit of people on Twitter

Lets go through the points listed above.

1.Targeted Clients, Potential Clients and Interesting Propsects on Twitter

Find interesteing people who are looking for you. Get proactive.  Introduce yourself and say hello. Its really that simple. The point is however that if you dont focus and spend the time searching for people who may already want your product or service then your basically wasting your time. I have some tips on how to find really interesting people and potential clients on this post Using Google Search to find interesting Twitter Users by doing careful searches to really narrow down your search scope.

2. Your Twitter account and Blog.

Once you get to know your followers they will want to know more about you, but its up to you to tell them when you have something new or interesting for them to read, hence twitter is used as a way to create a relationship (in 140 characters or less) and your blog is the way to expand upon your views, ideas, products or services in more depth by engaging your followers and raising their awareness when you post information. Again, don’t spam it, no one likes it, really, they don’t, and the same rules apply on your blog.

3. Refer them to your staff on twitter

Your staff should be using twitter. Seriously.  If you find a follower who needs to speak to someone in your company who is on twitter then the channels are opened easily and an introduction is immediate. Your staff will also, inversely, be following this method in generating new clients and can cross refer to the most able people as required.

4. Staff Social Networks

Allowing your staff to develop their own social profiles will inevitably help you and your business develop a much stronger and more approachable business. By having a strong social network in place it opens the means of access from a range of different channels to help people find you and also you to find them and establish a rapor.

Now time for another method of using twitter in your business.

Twitter in your Business – The Internal Resource Model

This version of using twitter may require you to have a separate account on twitter with the sole purpose of gathering information and developing industry knowledge and awareness and passing this on to your staff effectively and immediately. It will also work especially well on monitoring your competition.

1. Information and Resources on twitter your business follows

No one can tell you who your business should be following in your industry, that’s up to you to know and be aware of or to actively source.  Depending on your sector there will be varying degrees of activity from professionals and authorities, some will be immediately obvious some will be a little harder to find.  Again try using the information in the post I mentioned above to drill down and locate these people who could have important information for you.

That being said, some suggestions I would offer include the news services such as the BBC, CNN or similar.  Most have a variety of accounts with updating information on various channels that are sure to suit.

2. The private business account

Make your updates private. Yep, private. No! I hear most social media people scream, thats not what its about. Well in this case it is and the private option is there for a good reason in this case.  This account is not for open communication, its more a means of having quality information coming in, one way, that you can then choose the best of, effectively acting as a filter, and passing it on to staff, which leads me conveniently to point 3.

3.  Requesting Permission to access updates

In order for staff to access your information they need to request permission to access the feed.  The more staff the more hassle this is but once set its done and really only takes a single click on an email to grant access.

The other effect of having the private account and the permission settings is that if you need to rely information to all your staff in one go then you can simply tweet it, you can directly address someone with @ and DM them privately as normal.  Be aware though.

:- Staff @replies are in their public time line for their followers to see, you have been warned!

4. Individual Staff Social Networks

Taking the information you find relevant staff can then pass this fresh and focused information on to their social networks if they wish.  The networks may be clients or partners but if the information is of a good quality then the effect will only be positive on you, your business and your brand.

These uses for twitter in business are only a few ideas I have been thinking on and wanted to illustrate so they may not be suitable for everyone but if it does nothing else but get you thinking about how you can use twitter effectively then im a happy guy.