Twitter. It’s been on my mind a lot the last couple of days. I’ve been doing a lot of blocking and tackling against advertisers and shopping clubs. They just don’t interest me. People, ideas and thoughts do.

It’s definitely a media flavor of the month topic. A recent posting on TechCrunch notes that ‘It’s taking a breather’. No surprise there. The burning business question from many is, is twittering for my business or me? My gut reaction. No. Then I take a step back, stop and think and I have to say.  It depends. Maybe, yes. Why? Twitter demographics range from the mid 40’s to my teenage niece and nephew, which means the potential audience reach is broad.  If used wisely and within boundaries it could be pretty powerful.

I’ve seen several cases in which I think it has, can and is adding value to a brand or individual. But it’s dicey. With no real metric’s to benchmark Twitter against sales is it worth it for a small business to invest the time, energy and fickle nature of the consumer in a Twitter program.

To help sort this out I’ve come up with a list of questions that I hope can help you determine the To Twitter or Not To Twitter question.

1. Do you have an existing Marketing + PR plans that you can leverage Twitter against?
2. Are you a personality or company that already has a strong brand and looking for another venue to build that brand?
3. Is the Twitter demographic the audience that you need or are they already your audience?
4. What are the short- and long-term conversations you want to have with the audience? Are they brand or product related that would help keep them informed about you, what you’re up to, etc.? (No, not advertising!)
5. Do you or your company’s personality fit the Twitter’s demographic profile?
6. Time. How much of it do you have?

If you answered yes to three or more of the above you might consider integrating it into your current brand identity and marketing plan.  The kicker is 6. If you don’t have it, even if you answered positively to three or more, consider putting plans on the back burner. There’s nothing worse than starting a social media program and not following through.

All of these points aside. If you have the luxury, time, personality and inclination to Twitter. Then do. See what you see. I personally love it and can be found @ LLCumming.

What do you think? Do you or your business Twitter? Has it helped?

I look forward to hearing from you.