Today I saw two examples of how business, government and other organizations should use Twitter effectively. The tweets themselves may not have relevance to you unless you live in Atlantic Canada, specifically New Brunswick and, for one, the city of Moncton. But the point is what the tweets were and how Twitter was used. The tweets:
From @moncton came: “Moncton’s Codiac bus system has launched a new website! http://www.codiactranspo.ca including real-time bus tracking!”
And:
From @NB_Power came: NB Power employees donate Crocs to help Congo orphans. Check out: http://tinyurl.com/cwfgg6
Both tweets were informational. Both tweets were about something of interest to the people following them. Both tweets were retweeted (passed along so others could see them). Neither tweet involved a pitch and neither was something that was marketing fluff. Both were useful and both did more for, in these cases, the Moncton transportation system and NB Power than all the links to useless press releases and gimmicky marketing ploys in the world.
How do you use Twitter? Inform people and direct them with something they want, not what you want. If you do, odds are you’ll achieve the latter by doing the former.
One last thing, unconnected to the above, I also saw this great tweet:
@ggatin: New use for Twitter. Could some one please bring more paper to the 3rd stall in the mens room on the second floor?
After laughing, I thought, “Again, it’s something useful!”
Note: if the NB Power tweet appears confusing, it is about this (taken from the linked story), “Kind-hearted New Brunswick Electric Power Corporation employees have been helping orphans living in the Democratic Republic of Congo avoid debilitating parasitic infections by donating new and used Crocs, the colorful rubber shoes, to orphanages and poor children located in Africa.”
In other words, it was if interest because of its charitable aspect.
Yet another last thing: Congratulations Moncton and Codiac on implementing a great, forward thinking idea.
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