Driving Front Line Innovation in Health Care

Jennifer Stinson was a nurse at The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids) in Toronto who enjoyed brainstorming new ideas for improving care, especially for the kids with cancer she treats. But even as she gained status by getting her PhD and becoming a clinician scientist, she came up against persistent bureaucratic and organizational barriers to innovation.

Stinson’s challenge is common at big organizations, but overcoming bureaucracy and breaking down silos is especially critical in healthcare. To tackle these obstacles at SickKids, CEO Mary Jo Haddad in 2010 elevated innovation to a “strategic direction,” and engaged Innosight to help devise a full system needed to spur innovation. The resulting system has three major components:

1. An Innovation blueprint detailing the types of innovations the organization wants to encourage. SickKids prioritized encouraging doctors, nurses and clinicians to look for unmet needs they could address, rather than wait for solutions from IT or top management. That required creating a focus group with 25 front-line healthcare workers to discover and catalog key “jobs to be done” (like reducing the length of hospital visits), surveying all 5,000 employees, and training most of them on how to integrate the innovation system into their daily practices.

2. An innovation pipeline to reliably take ideas from concept to reality. This involved establishing a new 18-member Central Innovation Group of leaders from different areas of the hospital, a team that was tasked with prioritizing and advancing ideas and projects through various stages. The team helped innovators test prototypes, make adjustments, and then scale to a wider population.

3. An innovation culture that features the right people, in the right roles, speaking a common language of innovation. A key enabler of this culture was the establishment of a $250,000 Innovation Fund to provide seed money for promising ideas. Now, instead of being stalled by permission hurdles that suppress initiative, promising new ideas could be funded, fast-tracked and prototyped.

Consider how the new system helped Stinson bring a transformative innovation to life. Every year at SickKids, thousands of children are battling various forms of cancer. It’s vital that they keep accurate diaries tracking their pain, but if it’s not done daily the data are virtually worthless. Typically these diaries must be filled out by hand, an annoying task that children with cancer aren’t motivated to do. The result is poor reporting and suboptimal pain management.

Stinson had the spark of a solution: use technology that kids love to turn the pain-reporting chore into a game. Her idea went into the pipeline before the hospital’s own innovation fund was set up, but with outside funding she set out to develop and test an iPhone/iPad-based pain diary. A design firm called Cundari contributed $80,000 in-kind services to develop the app. To motivate patients to complete the diary, Cundari and Stinson recruited support from two of Canada’s most popular police detective shows, Rookie Blue and Flashpoint, to provide actors and visuals for the reward system in the app. She called the app The Pain Squad. The numbers so far are impressive. Whereas pain reporting with paper diaries yielded compliance rates below 50%, and Web-based diaries yielded 70%, Pain Squad has boosted rates to more than 90%.

The hospital is now scaling the innovation by making the app a standard part of care, and other hospitals in Canada are adopting it too. This spring, SickKids will launch it for free on the Apple AppStore for hospitals all over the world.

A different kind of idea came from Dr. Darius Bagli, a senior urologist who was frustrated with a patient billing system based on “paper, paper, paper.” Although Canada is a single-payer system, hospitals must still track all procedures so that the hospital and its doctors are properly paid. At SickKids, only 30% of procedures were being filed accurately and on time. “We were doing the worst job imaginable,” Bagli says.

The traditional route to solving such a problem would be to mandate that IT develop a solution over a period of perhaps a year or two. Bagli believed billing could be done better and a solution implemented more quickly by creating a simple one-screen billing app for the iPad. With a $10,000 grant from the new innovation fund, Bagli went from idea to pilot in three months. His App is now in used throughout several departments in the hospital. In urology, billing compliance rates went from below 50% to higher than 99%. “The thing practically paid for itself during the three month urology pilot alone, and will generate ten times, maybe twenty times that in one year,” Bagli says. “The funds we bring in will easily buy tablets for every department, with plenty recovered to fund other initiatives.”

The mobile billing and Pain Squad apps are just two of dozens of innovation projects that are making their way through the SickKids pipeline. By unleashing the creativity of front-line providers, SickKids has rapidly introduced low-cost innovations with big impacts. It’s a model that should be widely

BY David Duncan, a senior partner with the innovation strategy consulting firm Innosight

JPMorgan: iPad and iPhone sales estimates raised by 20 million devices

JPMorgan analysts have substantially raised sales and earnings estimates for Apple, the iPad and iPhone.

Mark Moskowitz, IT hardware analyst with JPMorgan, has raised his price target on Apple to US$715 from US$625 on the new estimates.

“Our research indicates that the iPhone and iPad shipment activity in the supply chain implies major upside potential to our previous estimates. We are not trying to inflate expectations.”

Mr. Moskowitz has revised his estimate on iPhone unit shipments to 31.1 million from 28.1 million previously, bumping the 2012 estimate to 138.2 million from 128.7 million.

His new forecast for iPad shipments is 13.8 million in the quarter, compared with 10.1 million, and 69.6 million on the year versus 58.6 million previously.

“These are big numbers, affirming Apple’s above-peer growth potential, and all of this potential exists despite Apple having defied the law of numbers previously.”

Looking further ahead, Mr. Moskowitz expects Apple to refresh its MacBook laptop portfolio, including the ultraslim MacBook Air, within the next three months. Apple will need to introduce incremental improvements and lower price points to stay competitive as rivals narrow the gap.

The iPhone 4S and new iPad are not as disappointing as some would have you believe.

The author of this post is Jeff Cormier

via CNET

 

4 Ways to Optimize Your iPad For Business

Are you thinking about snapping up a new iPad? The post-PC lifestyle is especially intriguing for business owners who travel on a regular basis and want to travel lightly. It’s easy to forget that the tablet, for all of its shiny tech and workable native apps, is still a blank slate for business. Luckily, that can be solved with a few quick tips — and the right apps. Here’s a round-up of what you need to maximize your iPad’s capabilities and ensure that you’re getting the most out of your new workhorse.

How have you optimized your iPad?  Let us know in the comments below. 

1.  Invest in the Cloud. 

Everyone in the tech industry has been buzzing about the cloud for years — and for a good reason. Whether it’s through the Apple-sanctioned iCloud or third-party option like Dropbox, the cloud is easily a businessperson’s best friend. At a moderate cost — $9.99 a month for 50GB on Dropbox — the memory and capacity of your iPad increases dramatically.  Not to mention the benefit of the ability to maintain real-time sync with other computers and devices.  So, if you’re cut off from a project at the last-minute, and you’re rushing out of your work office to catch a plane or meet with a client, you can just drop your files into the cloud and pick up where you left off once you get to your destination. 

If you’re looking to forgo your laptop in place of a tablet altogether, you simply can’t do it without a functional and helpful cloud.  Even at its highest price point, the iPad alone only comes with as much standard memory as a regular MacBook Air.  There’s no better way to keep your iPad running smoothly than to store all of your files online rather than within the tablet itself. 

2.  Make Sure You Can Go Offline. 

A lot of what makes an iPad slick and sexy is its seamless browsing design.  But, the iPad is not the iPhone: Unless you’re willing to scale up a ways to get unlimited 4G access (not to mention the cost of the contract), you’re likely to only have access to the Internet when you’re Wi-Fi enabled.  That can be a huge time-suck for those who are looking for ease and accessibility when they’re onboard a flight or simply without a hotspot. 

Enter Instapaper.  This app serves as the ultimate bookmark: Just click the “Read Later” bookmarklet on your browser — or email a link to your Instapaper account — to add item to your Instapaper account so that you can view it any time on Instapaper, even while you’re offline.  The best part is that you can bookmark nearly anything, including long emails and online PDFs, so you’ll never have to kick yourself for being unable to respond to an important business document because you’re indesposed.  

3.  Mix and Match the Functions of an Office Suite 

There are two truths about simple office suite software on the iPad: They can be some of the most expensive apps you’ll buy for your tablet, and the inexpensive alternatives can feel, well, lacking.  That’s why it’s best to analyze exactly what you use your office suite for the most, and then pick the app that does those things best. 

For example, a simple writing app like CleanWriter would be ideal for someone who relies heavily on docs for simple writing duties like blogs and emails.  However, those who are looking for bells and whistles, such as photo placement, should spend the extra cash for Pages.  Same thing for spreadsheet apps: If you’re looking at spreadsheets rather than creating or editing them full-time, you may be better off sticking with an annotation app like GoodReader instead of spending double for Numbers.  The nice thing about the iPad is that it lets you pick and choose — don’t be afraid to tailor your app set to suit your needs rather than loading up on a bunch of “just in case” apps. 

4.  Splurge on an Industry-Specific App 

 The best time to spend money is when you’re getting top-shelf products to help make your business run more smoothly.  There are multiple industry-specific applications that can be invaluable to your iPad suite, and it’s best to pick the absolute best option out there — even if it means digging a little deeper into your pockets.

For example, independent freelancers would do well spending the extra money on an invoicing app like Invoice2Go that would help keep track of time and clients.  If you deal largely in contracts or reports, then a PDF manager like PDF Reader Pro will be a must on your list. 

Everyone is different, and every work style is different.  So optimization, in the end, comes down to personalization.  The more you think about what you need to run your business, the more useful your tablet will be to you. 

Adapted from Lauren Hockenson  

 

 

Business advantages of the new iPad

What does the new iPad mean to business?

Expect it to push the bring-your-own-device trend in the workplace 

The new iPad’s features and specs are arguably more in line with consumer use than business.  The retina display and graphics performance are notable improvements, but their biggest impact will be on uses like video and gaming. 

That isn’t to say that business users won’t see benefits.  Reduced eye strain, greater readability of text and an overall improvement in graphics capabilities will benefit every iPad user in some way.  But they don’t offer direct business or productivity gains compared to the previous generation of iPads — except for a handful of professionals, including those in creative, design and other media jobs.  The improved graphics and video capabilities may make the iPad more suited to on-the-go media work.  That very point — that the iPad is indeed useful for content creation — was highlighted at last week’s iPad unveiling. 

The improved graphics capabilities may also bolster the use of iPads in healthcare. Although the new model’s display can’t yet compete with top-end radiology and medical imaging workstations, the higher resolution — 2048 by 1536 pixels — may make it even more attractive to the industry.  Though the resolution may be lower than a dedicated workstation, it’s still more advanced than any other tablet on the market and higher than that of most notebooks, PC or Mac. 

Similar advantages will play out in architecture and design.  While the iPad isn’t a full-fledged PC (or Mac) replacement in these fields, the improved display will be useful as a presentation device and will further the existing iPad’s capabilities of instant collaboration during planning or design meetings. 

Although the iPad isn’t a dedicated videoconferencing appliance, the improved 5-megapixel rear-facing camera could be useful for those workplaces that rely on either Apple’s FaceTime or multiplatform video-chat solutions.  (The front-facing camera doesn’t appear to have changed from the previous model.) 

If there’s a single feature in the new iPad that makes it a better business tool, it’s the dictation capabilities Apple added to the virtual keyboard.  These are the same capabilities (sans Siri) available on the iPhone 4S, and, for many users, they may prove to be a better option than using the iPad’s on-screen keyboard, particularly when entering a lot of text. 

Choosing between the new iPad and iPad 2 

With Apple still selling the iPad 2 for $399, businesses now have more flexibility when purchasing iPads in quantity.  In the absence of any further discounts from Apple, the $100 price difference between a new 16GB model and the 16GB iPad 2 means that a company buying five of the older models is essentially getting a sixth free (compared to buying the new iPad).   

Adapted from Computerworld’s  Ryan Faas 

 

Tablets at Sea: How iPads Are Transforming the Cruise Industry

The cruise industry is embracing tablets in a variety of ways, incorporating the devices into restaurants, virtual tours of the ship and even selling them at sea.

With all cruises now featuring satellite Wi-Fi throughout sailings, passengers are opting to check in with home or work more often with iPads and other  tablets.

“The emerging tablet market has opened the door to a great deal of flexibility with how we are able to interact with our show control systems,” said Eric Merz, director of guest technology at Carnival Cruise Line.

“Tablets are lightweight, relatively inexpensive, and very versatile with respect to the features that they can provide.  The app market continues to grow, and often times we find that available tablet applications will satisfy our needs without the need for costly custom software development.”

Merz has overseen tablet development on two cruise lines, having worked with Disney Cruise Line before coming to Carnival.

At Carnival, iPads play crucial roles in the new EA Sports Bar aboard the cruise ship Carnival Liberty.  The video game and sports bar boasts Xbox 360s and a full catalog of EA Sports games. Carnival is adding the bars to additional ships over the coming years.

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iPads as Control Panels

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“The iPads integrate directly with the control systems of the EA Sports Bar and can operate nearly every feature of the space,” explained Merz.  “These controls enable the content changes for each of the 16 displays that make up the large display wall, including changing the overall configuration if we want to stretch featured sports feeds across multiple displays for larger viewing.

“The iPads also allow us to trigger some exciting sound effects in the room such as buzzers, crowd cheers, stadium organs, and dozens more so our venue can bring more energy to the live broadcasts in real time.”    

The entire venue is run using an AMX control system.  AMX created a companion application for the iPad that makes integration with the sport bar system possible.

Apple’s tablets also bring to life the bar’s custom high-tech jersey memorabilia frames.  Each frame has a pair of iPads embedded to showcase a video loop of the cover athlete in-game for Madden, NBA live and NCAA Football.

“We’ve also programmed other iPads for our entertainment crew members who run our trivia and game tournaments,” said Merz.  “I like the opportunity to provide information and entertainment content directly to the guests in a way that is personalized to them.

“This takes quite a bit of work on our side to create an architecture to support the right content distribution.  But in a way, our job is easier knowing that the display device will be one that we don’t have to provide, nor is it something we’ll need to instruct the guests on how to use.”

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Organizing Activities

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Activities are a popular way for cruise employees to take advantage of the portable devices, which are quickly replacing laptops at sea.

“Tablets have helped to streamline the Youth Programs registration and check-in processes on Norwegian Epic, making it a much smoother and faster process for parents to get registration done so they can start enjoying their family vacation,” said Janet Kim, Fleet Youth Program Supervisor for Norwegian Cruise Lines.

“Also on the Epic, Pearl and Gem, cruise programs utilize tablets in capturing the Sport Court waivers when guest choose to use the Rock Wall.”

Other cruise lines are taking different approaches to tablets. Celebrity Cruises actually sells iPads aboard its Solstice and Millennium class ships in the iLounge.  The program launched with iPads and was upgraded to iPad 2s. And, with the launch of the new iPad, passengers will be able to not only purchase the new tablets but also learn how to use them.

“One of the great things about Apple is that it is cross-generational,” said Dominique Bonavita, director of Product Development at Celebrity Cruises.  “Our guests have a love of Apple products and software because of its ease of use, quality and innovation.  We’re able to build upon the products and enrich our guests’ lives with the classes we offer.

“We see a lot of guests who are completely adept at using these products, and then we see parents and grandparents participating in our classes in an effort to keep up with their children and grandchildren.  They learn skills that can take home with them and utilize throughout their daily life such as sharing their vacation experience through photo books, or a movie they’ve edited on their own.”

Although there are now plenty of land-based restaurants that have upgraded to tablets for menus, that concept actually debuted at sea aboard the Celebrity Eclipse with the specialty restaurant, Qsine.

At the restaurant, each table is handed an iPad that has an app that features a full menu from drinks to desserts. Guests are able to mail recipes and wine labels to themselves or friends through this app while dining.

“We’re seeing more and more guests come onboard with their own devices, so we’re looking at this as another channel for communicating with guests and providing information the way they want to receive it,” said Bonavita.  “It’s rare to work on a new concept now where the iPad or an app isn’t part of the consideration process for the concept.”

The cruise industry has a record number of new ships launching in the next few years, each trying to top the competition with new technology.

Tablets are now at the center of these advancements, as the cruise industry has seen how tablets have helped revolutionize the hotel and resort industry and is eager to push things forward at sea.

 

This article originally published at TabTimes here.

TabTimes is a Mashable publishing partner that helps you select, buy and use the best tablet devices, accessories, apps, platforms and services for yourself, your department and your organization.

 

 

 

12-year-old sues school district over Facebook profile search

A Minnesota school district is sued by a 12-year-old girl who claims that the school pressured her to give up her Facebook password.  But, wait, the minimum age on Facebook is 13.

It seems that everyone in authority wants to get into your virtual underbelly.

Employers in Maryland seem to think they have the right to search potential hires’ Facebook profiles.

And now the Minnewaska school district in Minnesota stands accused of coercing a 12-year-old girl into giving up her Facebook and e-mail passwords, so that a school could spy with their little eye.

CNN reports that she was also twice punished for things she wrote on Facebook.

A lawsuit on behalf of the girl–brought in conjunction with the ACLU–declares that her First and Fourth Amendment rights were violated.

The girl–referred to in the court papers as R.S.–apparently felt that her hall monitor was mean to her and therefore described her as “mean” on her Facebook profile.  She claims that no school equipment or property were used to make her postings.

It is unclear how a screenshot of her postings got back to the school principal, but it seems they did.  Even one in which she wanted to know–using strong language–who had betrayed her.

It is alleged that the password-demanding incident occurred when the parents of another student objected to a Facebook post in which sex was discussed.

What seems even more pulsating is that the court papers state that she was called to a meeting at which a school counselor and the deputy sheriff were present.

It was at this meeting that she was allegedly “interrogated” and surrendered the passwords to her Facebook and e-mail accounts.

And, no, her mother had allegedly not consented to the search.

The school district told CNN:  “The district is confident that once all facts come to light, the district’s conduct will be found to be reasonable and appropriate.”

There are always more facts than appear in court papers.  Who knows what all the facts ultimately were, for example, when a Philadelphia school district was sued by the parents of a 15-year-old for allegedly viewing him at home via remote Webcam on his school-issued laptop?

What did happen is that a $610,000 settlement was reached.

Yet one fact might fascinate some in this peculiar conundrum in which–if the accusations prove true–the school district behaved uncomfortably:  You have to be 13 to have a Facebook account.

Facebook’s rules are very clear on this.  Facebook promises to delete the accounts of all under-13s.  (There does seem to be a bizarre exception for babies.)

Moreover, if a child is underage, it’s not as if Facebook will simply give his or her parents the child’s password and/or posts if they ask for them.

Facebook’s Help Center for parents states:  “Applicable laws may give parents the right to access personal information their under-13-year-old child has provided before Facebook follows its policy of promptly deleting such accounts.”

In such a case, parents have to offer notarized proof that they are the child’s legal guardians.  In one case, a parent has sued Facebook for allowing a 12-year-old to have an account on which she allegedly posted naughty pictures.

The ACLU declared in a statement:  “Students do not shed their First Amendment rights at the school house gate.  The Supreme Court ruled on that in the 1970s, yet schools like Minnewaska seem to have no regard for the standard.”

Will the school publicly reveal its own version of the facts?  Will its claim it was acting “in loco parentis”?  Or will its lawyers already be privately mulling the concept of a settlement?

Article adapted from Chris Matyszczyk -  CNet’s Blog Network

iPad 3: What we didn’t get

Inevitably, whenever Apple releases a new product, there’s a little disappointment over what was missing.  Here’s a look at some of the things Apple didn’t deliver in this iPad release.

The dust has finally settled, the rumors have been replaced by facts, and now we know what the new iPad is all about.  So what’s missing?  Or what fell a little short of expectations?

Here’s the quick rundown.  Feel free to add to the mix with your own take in the comments section.

New design:  When the iPhone 4S came out, a lot of folks were disappointed Apple didn’t deliver the iPhone 5.  Instead, we got a souped up version of the iPhone 4 with a better camera and no real design changes (Apple did move the ambient light sensor slightly, but that doesn’t count).

Similarly, the “iPad 3″–Apple isn’t calling it that–doesn’t really look any different from the iPad 2.  Yes, the case is slightly more tapered, but it’s not a significant change.  In other words, once again almost all the change is on the inside.  For some people, that’s just fine, but if you were hoping to see a whole new iPad with a new look, you’ll have to wait.

Lighter weight:  One of the issues with the iPad is that it remains a little heavy.  Alas, with the new Retina display, better cameras, and faster processor, Apple couldn’t reduce the weight of the device (it measures 9.4mm thin and weighs 1.44 pounds for the WiFi-only version).  To get lighter, Apple would probably have to reduce the size of the battery, but that just wasn’t possible in moving to the high-resolution display (Apple says battery life remains at 10 hours).  As it stands, the new iPad weighs about an ounce more than the iPad 2.

An A6 processor:  Prior to launch, there was lots of chatter about what kind of chip would power the next iPad.  After the iPhone 4S got a modified version of the A5 processor found in the iPad 2, many presumed the new iPad would get the A6 processor.  Instead we got the A5X, which integrates a dual-core processor with “quad-core” graphics.

Apple says the A5X offers “four times the performance” of Nvidia’s Tegra 3 chip. Great as that all sounds, it’s still no A6.

A 128GB version:  Those holding out for a higher-capacity iPad will have to continue to wait.  We’re now looking at topping out at 64GB with no expansion slot.

A 7-incher (the rumored iPad Mini):  While we thought the chances were slim that Apple would introduce a smaller iPad at this time, rumors continue to swirl that it will happen sometime this year.  After the release of the Kindle Fire and Nook Tablet (both now cost $199), we’d like to see what Apple could do at this size.  We’ll have to wait.

Siri:  Everyone, including this writer, expected Apple to add Siri, the voice-controlled iPhone virtual assistant feature to the next iPad.  So where is she? Interestingly, Apple said that new iPad will allow users to dictate e-mails, but didn’t mention of Siri, who does more than take dictation.

iOS 6:  Ars Technica reported that it was seeing devices running iOS 6 in logs, sparking hope that Apple might release–or at least tease–iOS 6.  Alas, we’re only getting iOS 5.1 now.  Expect more iOS news to emerge in June at Apple’s World Wide Developers conference.

No name:  It looks like Apple’s moving away from numbers in its iPad naming scheme like it did with the iPod Touch.  For now it’s just calling it “the new iPad,” but when you actually order it through the Apple Store, what you see in your cart is “Apple iPad (3rd generation).” Perhaps this opens the door to other model names/versions such as the iPad Mini.

By CNET’s David Carnoy

 

 

This Twitter Account Lets You Read Everyone’s Google Searches (And They’re Hilarious!)

“How to make the chewbacca noise”

“what is a hipster?”

“what is a MILF?”

Ahh, priceless Google searches, made public thanks to the newest novelty Twitter account on the scene.

OverShareMe is a new app for Google Chrome that, once installed, will tweet your Google searches for all the world to see.

You can install it onto your Chrome web browser (or, as the website suggests, onto the browser of your “frenemy”), and simply let it auto-tweet away every time you perform a Google search.

But don’t worry – your embarrassing medical problems and obsession with cute cat photos won’t be broadcast to all of your Twitter followers. OverShareMe sends your searches to its associated Twitter account @PlzOverShareMe, tweeting them anonymously and attaching an unrelated hashtag to hide them.

The Twitter account has only been active for two days, but it’s already tweeted over 30 tweets. And while some are just your garden variety searches like “Pinterest” and “social media”, but there are some gems in there too. “What is a hipster?” is by far my favorite.

As this gains steam, I expect it will provide us with some pretty funny tweets. Seeing what people search for during their lunch breaks, their nights off or their slightly tipsy late night Internet sessions will definitely be entertaining.

However, a novelty account like this could easily be hijacked if people start searching for fake queries just to see their crazy searches public on the Twitter account.

Would you sign up for a novelty account like this one? Or is it all just a little too silly for your tastes? Let us know in the comments below.

By Lauren Dugan

 

Apple Goes Big In Texas With $304 Million Austin Campus

Most of the news around Austin this week is centered around SXSW, naturally, but Texas Governor (and erstwhile presidential candidate) Rick Perry broke some news today that’s unrelated, but still Austin-relevant. Apple, it seems, which has been slowly growing its presence in the state’s tech oasis, chose SXSW weekend as an auspicious time to announce a major new campus in Austin.

There isn’t much known about the campus or its purpose, but Perry’s announcement does note that the price tag is a hefty $304 million, so it’s more than just a new building or two on the existing Riata Vista Circle.  It’s estimated that it will add 3,600 jobs over the next decade, doubling Apple’s employment in the area.

The existing buildings and employees are reportedly focused mainly on administrative duties, and a few related to chip engineering.  Apple told Reuters that the new campus will be in customer support, sales, and accounting. Not the most exciting thing in the world, but essential to supporting Apple’s increasing software base and customer responsibilities.

To sweeten the deal, the state has earmarked $21 million from the Texas Enterprise Fund to help with the cost of establishing the facility.  That’s less than $6000 per job if things pan out as expected &Mdash; a bargain.  Perry’s press release lauds the fund as having successfully created thousands of jobs and much revenue for the area. So far, the TEF has spent $443.4 million, matched by over $15 billion in other tech investment in the state.

By Devin Coldewey

 

7 Ways Businesses Can Use Twitter

Twitter is a valuable tool for any business, big or small.  Whether you’re a one-person operation or part of a large social media team, creating a presence on Twitter is a great idea.  There is more than one way to use this versatile social information tool, however, so we’ve listed 7 ways businesses can use Twitter so you can see which one(s) are right for you. 

Before you get started implementing these different ways to use Twitter for your business, you’ve got to have a business Twitter account in place.  We’ve got a guide to setting up a business Twitter account, complete with how to choose your name, profile picture and background image, so you can get tweeting right away.

1. Branding and Visibility

Simply having a Twitter account is a good first step towards creating a cohesive brand image online.  However, you’ve got to use it in a way that is engaging, interesting, and fits with the image you’re trying to create.

Just like with any marketing exercise, your Twitter account must have a consistent message and brand in order for its visibility to be beneficial. You want your followers to know that your Twitter account is the go-to place for the latest industry news, customer service, deals, etc.

Consider the following when branding your business Twitter account:

• Twitter profile picture – is it a logo? A headshot? This will set the tone of your Twitter account. A logo is more professional, while a headshot is usually more approachable.  The one you choose is up to you.
• Twitter background – you’ve effectively got some free advertising space in your Twitter background, so make the most of it and customize it to add to your branding efforts.
• Twitter bio – the “about” section of Twitter is crucial to creating a consistent brand.  You can include a link to your company’s website here. Writing a targeted bio will help you find those followers who are most interested in your brand – and thus most likely to become customers.

2. Customer Support

There are some great examples of business Twitter accounts being used for customer support. You can use Twitter to respond directly to customers who have questions or problems, providing an instant channel of communication to mitigate a lot of potential issues.

Check out the Bank of America’s Twitter account: they have scheduled times in which customer service representatives will answer questions and troubleshoot problems for their customers. If you don’t have the resources for a team of professionals to run this type of Twitter account, you can still reach out to customers who have @mentioned you and help them with their problems on Twitter when you have a spare moment here or there.

3. Customer Outreach/Feedback

Twitter is also a great place to get feedback from your customers, and to reach out to them to share company news and changes.

Your customers will often @mention you when they have something to say that has to do with your business.  It’s good Twitter practice to reply to this feedback, even if it’s just a thank you. By letting them know you’re listening, you’ll encourage your customers to continue to offer their 140-character feedback.

Your business Twitter account can also be used to share company news, like an acquisition or changes in product offering.  Being transparent with your customers in your Twitter outreach will make them trust you more, and it will strengthen your Twitter account.

4. Networking

You can use Twitter to network with other professionals in your field, or businesses you’d like to see a potential partnership with.  Because of the somewhat informal nature of Twitter, it is a great place to strike up a conversation with another business account or individual who you might like to network with.

Twitter is also full of networking events like hashtag chats.  You can also use Twitter to follow hashtags related to specific conferences, in order to meet up with someone and network in person.

5. Internal Communication

Some businesses use Twitter as a means for their employees to communicate with one another. Although there are other services, such as Yammer, which offer this functionality in a more private setting, you might want to consider this approach if you’re create a very open and transparent business.

6. Lead Generation

It’s possible to find leads through Twitter.  You can search for keywords related to your business, and send @replies directly to the individuals you find who might be interested in your services.  For instance, if you own an apartment building in New York, you might want to search for “two bedroom” “apartment rental” or “NY apartment”, and find possible leads through the search results. Be careful of being too pushy with your unsolicited @replies though.

7. To Support Other Online Presences

Finally, Twitter is just one of many social media tools that businesses should be using.  Twitter can be a great complimentary channel of communication, if used in conjunction with Facebook, LinkedIn and YouTube, for instance.

Many businesses produce slightly or completely different content for each of their social media presences, catering to their respective audience.  If you are using more than just Twitter – and we recommend you do – to promote your business online, be sure you give your Twitter followers a reason to follow you. Don’t just repeat yourself across all social medium.

Lastly, be sure to link all of your social media presences together.  Don’t be afraid to tell your Facebook fans about your Twitter account, and vice versa.  You should also link to all of your social media on your main company website or blog.

Article By Lauren Dugan