Is Twitter a good form of corporate communication?

Is Twitter a good form of corporate communication? Sure it is.

Twitter is by far one of the most easiest ways to reach the masses via social media. Just one small 140 character blurb can reach millions.

Twitter can also be a great customer support tool. Just today I had issues with a Level3 T1 connection at work. Engulfed in my frustration I tweeted out to the community about my experience. Almost immediately I received an @ reply as well as an email from a tier 3 engineer at Level 3. He had been filtering tweets by the string ‘Level3′ and noticed my distress tweet for help. Although I didn’t need his help and Level3 was being very responsive in repairing the issue, it opened my eyes about the importance of a corporate presence on Twitter.

A Lot of times when I am frustrated with something I will tweet it out to the world in a means of venting. I just feel like I have to let the world know how crappy a product is, or how unreliable a service is. Most of my tweeting is done at work that involves IT services and products from many companies. If people are upset with a service they receive they are more likely to tell more people about it than if they were happy with the service. If corporations actually had someone responsible for sifting through the millions of tweets a day they may be able to get an idea of how other view their services. This could be a great marketing tool and used as a guide in what direction support teams need to be headed in. It could also help target issues that need to be worked out within the company.