Over the past few weeks Twitter has been a large discussion topic in our client meetings - some people are ready to jump on board, while others are more hesitant or don't quite understand how to use this social media tool. As a brief overview, Twitter is a micro-blogging tool that allows you to send out short messages that are 140 characters in length. These messages or "tweets" can be informational, promotional, directional or personal and often provide a link to more information or resources.

For both the corporate and nonprofit world, Twitter can be a great tool that helps you generate leads/sales, stay in touch with current members/clients, as well as promote your brand, event or most recent news. Twitter can also help increase the traffic to your website and direct people to the specific information you want them to see. Twitter allows you to connect with an endless amount of people and helps you create conversation.

But did you know that it's now possible to have an inanimate object tweet for you? Precious, "the tweeting bike", is one of the coolest things I've seen in a long time and is a great example of some of the unique ways you can use Twitter to raise awareness. Precious (the bike), who is being ridden across the United States (Atlantic to Pacific) to raise awareness and funds for The Livestrong Challenge, sends out tweets automatically from a few hundred stored messages. Using a programmed device that measures temperature, humidity, speed, direction and GPS, Precious can share his experiences as he's ridden across the US. Very cool - instead of having Janeen McCrae (the cyclist) tweet about her experiences - the bike does it!

Now this is a somewhat extreme case of using Twitter to promote or raise awareness about your company or organization, so here are a few simpler ways that you can give Twitter a try:

• send out News or Event information
• send out tips or advice
• link to important information on your website
• follow leaders in your business community and see what they're saying
• make new connections or leads