Five reasons to try CoTweet - a Twitter tool for business

Still, some have concerns. How much time will this take? (As Jonathan Paisner, Advertising Age pointed out in The Rise of the C-Tweet, this is big issue for executives.)

How do we manage it all? Who is the right person to twitter? Enter CoTweet.

CoTweet is a new tool being developed to meet the unique needs of businesses on Twitter. It is currently being used by Microsoft, JetBlue, Ford, Pepsi and other leading brands. After reading Mashable’s post on it, we wanted to try it for ourselves. We’ve been testing it for the past month and we’re pretty excited about the potential.

Here are five reasons it’s a good solution for businesses: 

1. Companies can have one primary account (@cotweet) to which multiple users can contribute. As we’ve seen with corporate blogs, many companies are more comfortable with this type of “team-written” approach. It takes the pressure off of one person and helps to ensure frequent and consistent updates. 

2. The team approach also lets companies engage subject matter experts across the organization, who can comment on different areas of the business. CoTweet actually lets users establish who is “OnDuty” (i.e., responsible for updates, responses) at any given time. 

3. CoTweet makes it easy to manage responses. A user can monitor the Twitter conversation using integrated search, assign responses to @replies and direct messages (DMs) to other users, and track the follow up. Users see their assigned tasks when they sign on to CoTweet (through a familiar Inbox/Outbox/FollowUp interface). They can also elect to receive them via e-mail in real-time or at set intervals (e.g., every 30 minutes).                                                                                                                         

4. Using a new CoTag convention (ex: ^BH), CoTweet users can automatically include signatures in updates to identify who's talking and keep conversations personal. This is important because people want to talk to people, not brands, on Twitter.  

5. Users can schedule updates to post at a later time. This is helpful for twitterers with busy schedules. 

CoTweet is still in beta, and they’re working on improvements to meet the needs of companies. This week, we met with Jesse Engle, CEO, and Kyle Sollenberger, VP Customer Experience to learn more about what their up to. According to Jesse and Kyle, here’s what we can expect to see soon:

 - A CoTweet mobile application – Today, users update from their current mobile app (e.g., TwitterBerry), but follow-up outside the CoTweet platform can’t be tracked.

- Improved search and groups – CoTweet is improving the integrated Twitter search capabilities and adding groups so users can manage followers more easily. For example, a certain set of followers could be assigned to one subject matter expert.

- Better reporting – New Twitter Analytics tools are popping up daily. CoTweet is working to build some of this functionality right into the platform for easier and more useful reporting.

While in beta, CoTweet is still free to use. It will likely move to a subscription model, but pricing is still TBD.

So what are the downsides of CoTweet? I don’t see many in the tool (aside from the mobile app, which is coming soon). My only caution would be that companies avoid Twitter ghostwriting; the tool makes it easy to update with the signature of any user. Also, while the response management aspect can make your job easier, don’t get too detached from true listening and conversations. That’s what it’s all about. Have fun with it!

Are any of you already using CoTweet? If so, we want to hear about your experience.