Three of Twitter’s new business features won’t be available until later this year, but we’ve got a quick preview of them:

1. Contributors. This feature will allow multiple users to post to the same Twitter account without having to share a password. This means businesses can partner with one another to post to a joint account and make announcements that could impact both companies’ customers. It also means several different people can gain access to a company’s central Twitter account, giving individual sales and marketing people access to a much wider audience.
2. Verified accounts. This will add an emblem or “badge” to the Twitter accounts of high-profile users like celebrities, politicians and CEOs. With so many people registering for fake accounts, the “verified accounts” emblem ensures customers they’re in fact choosing to follow the real company CEO (or the company itself) and not some imitator.
3. Direct messages. Direct messages may have the most practical use for businesses that rely on Twitter as a customer engagement tool. It allows users to send private messages to other accounts, regardless of whether they follow the company on Twitter. This new function allows companies to engage customers in one-on-one exchanges in a non-public setting. It also makes Twitter a much more valuable means of opening a dialogue with customers.

Source: “A Closer Look at Twitter’s Latest Features for Businesses,”
Open Forum, 5/19/10.

Tags: dialogue, engagement, marketing, sales, tools, Twitter