But Twitter isn’t just for individuals. Twitter holds great potential for improved online communication, collaboration and relationship building for business. Early adopters in social media marketing are picking up and running with Twitter, adding it to their client’s overall online media marketing mix.

Twitter offers unique opportunties for the enhancement & expansion of traditional marketing and social media marketing campaigns. We see companies and savvy Internet marketers coming up with new ways to use Twitter to their advantage. A few ways you might consider using Twitter in your online PR and Internet marketing strategies include:

• building relationships with prospective clients
• promoting events
• providing insight and commentary on an event in real time
• promoting special offers or daily specials
• facilitating collaborative experience
• building conversation
• sending press releases
• opening dialogue between promoter and promotion participants
• website traffic generation

Here’s a random sample of companies using Twitter as part of their social media marketing efforts:

• Amazon
• Dell
• Woot
• MTV Music Video Awards
• Mac Rumors
• ESPN
• Carnival Cruise lines
• Intel Software
• CNN
• Delta Airlines
• Eleven Marketing

And here’s a few news sites using Twitter to their advantage:

• CNN
• New York Times
• BBC 

Chalkboard use ELGG, an open-source social networking platform that lets corporations, governments, and other organisations quickly establish blogs, the system’s collaborative features encourage building communities of users with shared interests. Other Elgg fine points include podcast support, file repositories, user profiles, an RSS aggregator, and branding features. Significantly, the software integrates with other IT systems and provides OpenID authentication.

To see a sample site click here

Some other Elgg-powered sites