Tap Twitter, and don't worry about mistakes

TWITTER may have high brand awareness among consumers and its use to disseminate news has been proven since its inception in 2006. However, many companies in Asia have yet to cotton on to the microblogging service's business benefits since they don't experiment with the platform and learn from mistakes, says one Twitter executive.

Parminder Singh, Twitter's MD for South-east Asia, India and MENA (Middle East and North Africa), told BizIT recently that the awareness and intent to use the microblogging service by companies in the Asian markets he is in charge of is "very strong". The challenge is helping them understand how to better use Twitter to engage and meet their customers' needs, he noted.

He agreed that some companies might have put off joining the platform for fear of consumer backlash should they commit a misstep when engaging people online. To this, he said: "Twitter users love brands that are authentic, and negative news are not necessarily bad (for the company)."