In today’s digital age one of the marketing world’s biggest tools might surprise you. #Twitter has emerged as the perfect medium for businesses to communicate with their clients in a casual and conversational way.  Not only does Twitter act as a communication channel, it also is a great place to advertise promotions, products, and opportunities that benefit both the consumer and producer alike.

Today, nearly every big company has a Twitter account; from Fortune 500 companies, to small food carts, everyone is on Twitter.  Businesses enjoy Twitter most simply because it’s free, its efficient, and it effectively engages a multitude of individuals.

For those unfamiliar with Twitter, it is a social media website that enables users to write up to 140 characters about anything they would like.  Additionally, Twitter gives users the opportunity to tweet at each other; an individual can do so by ‘tagging’ another Twitter user’s name so they receive an email notification that they have been mentioned in a tweet.  Next, Twitter uses ‘hashtags’ when something is ‘trending.’  Hashtags are essentially keywords that summarize the context of a tweet.  If something is ‘trending,’ that simply means that a topic is being used with great frequency (for example, during the olympics, people hashtag ‘olympics’ enough that it typically starts trending).

After understanding how Twitter works, it is easy to see why this would be such a vital asset in today’s digital marketing environment.  Social media permits the immediate release and retrieval of information, making promotions, events, and communication efficient and convenient for marketers and consumers alike.