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by Rodger Johnson on 10/23/2009

Is there a one-size-fits-all Twitter strategy? Contrary to popular belief and snake-oil Twitter schemes, there is not. Jeremiah Owyang, a Forrester Analyst says, picking a strategy for your business or organization doesn’t have to be hard. It really depends on your goals.

Currently there are five Twitter strategies Owyang see working well for businesses and organizations:

* Listening to your customers.
* Spreading your message.
* Selling products or services; announcing discounts and deals.
* Supporting your customers by addressing their problems.
* Collaborating with customers on product/service development.

The idea is to pick one and concentrate on it. Learn it. Leverage it. Use it.
Here’s how they fit into larger strategies:

Listening. Use search.twitter.com, or other listening tools to monitor what’s being said our your brand and company. Talk directly to your customers. Create a dialogue and give them information they can use.
* JetBlu and Southwest promote flight deals and send out company news.
* Rubbermaid and Dunkin’ Doughnuts listens and responds to consumer chatter.
* Dell sold $1 million in merchandise and promotes discounts on its products.

Energize. Find and engage brand advocates to do the “heavy” lifting for you.
* Zappo harvests a feed where its name is used by others and publishes it on the company website.

Support. Engage customers and provide and interactive channel they can use to stay connect to your company and reach real people anytime they want.
* Comcast does this with ComcastCares. The company monitors Twitter for customer complaints and addresses openly. By the way, they fix them too.

Enhance. Ask customers for immediate feedback.