The business leader's guide to using Twitter to gain competitive advantage

Since 2006, forward-thinking companies like Apple, JetBlue, Whole Foods, and GM have discovered the instant benefits of leveraging the social media phenomenon known as Twitter to reach consumers directly, build their brand, and increase sales. Twitter is at the leading edge of the social media movement, allowing members to connect with one another in real time via short text messages–called "tweets"–that can be received either via the Twitter site or by e-mail, instant messenger, or cell phone. Many companies have started building entire teams within their organization dedicated solely to responding to tweets from consumers about their brand. And this is just the beginning.

In Twitter Power, Internet marketing and Web innovation expert Joel Comm shows businesses and marketers how to integrate Twitter into their existing marketing strategies to build a loyal following among Twitter members, expand awareness for their product or service, and even handle negative publicity due to angry or disappointed consumers. The book also presents case studies of companies on the forefront of the Twitter movement, to help reader's develop their own social networking strategies. Twitter Power is the result of extensive testing and participation in the social networking community and is a must-have for any business that wants to keep up with the social media movement.

Joel Comm (Loveland, CO) is one of the world's leading experts on online moneymaking strategies. He is an in-demand speaker at conferences on Internet marketing and business, and also the author of The AdSense Code (978-1-933596-70-9) and Click Here to Order (978-1-60037-173-8). Ken Burge (Loveland, CO) is an eight-year veteran of Microsoft and is currently Joel Comm's business partner and President of InfoMedia, Inc. As an expert in online marketing and strategy, Ken is responsible for the direction and management of over 50 profitable online properties.

Cutting edge business-persons are leveraging the power of Twitter to introduce themselves to and communicate with customers in a whole new way that makes them feel like valued friends. Companies are building a following, exercising teambuilding, branding themselves and their products and/or services, selling more, and demonstrating how the technology can become the ultimate help desk for providing excellent customer service.

In this book, Joel Comm explains step-by-step how business owners can reap these benefits of Twitter, from signing up and building a page, to sending effective messages (“tweets”) in order to build a brand, to implementing a successful blog strategy that is Twitter-driven. Included are case studies of some of Twitter’s greatest success stories, which can be easily duplicated.