I have to be on Twitter ... don't I?

From @mitchjoel
Bad:What should we do on twitter?
Good:Why should we be on twitter?

I think this sums up the Twitter conversation going on in many businesses. Twitter is all over the news, in many circles of conversation, and people want to know how they can use it to improve their businesses.

The question I hear most from people is What should they do, but as @mitchjoel states, it's not what, but why. Are you going to be able to use Twitter to actually enhance your product? Improve customer service? Engage in conversation? Or is your only purpose to one way market?

My personal opinion is people first think of Twitter as an easy one way marketing tool like a billboard or newspaper ad. This is a failure of using Twitter to its full potential.

By figuring out the why, before the what, the chances you'll turn Twitter into a useful tool to enhance your business success will increase.

Plus, you might find out you don't need to be on Twitter and save yourself the effort of figuring out what to do.