Twitter Fame in USA Today

Over recent months I have been trying to explain to my more luddite friends (meaning folks who spend 50 hours a week in front of a monitor for the last twenty years, but have yet to join twitter) the pros and cons of Twitter.

Yes you can get lots of really cool information from twitter. Yes you can also waste countless hours reading about people's breakfast menus, or telling them about yours. But an article in USA Today sums up how the corporate and social worlds collide on twitter and why it matters for companies.

Tablet Hotels utilizes its Twitter account similarly to JetBlue, keeping an eye on what customers are saying and what they can do improve their experience. "We had one of our TabletPlus members Twitter from the front desk when the hotel was giving her a hard time," Michael Davis, co-founder of Tablet Hotels, said. "We caught it within 30 seconds of posting and our customer service called the hotel to resolve."

"Customer problems can no longer be kept 'quiet' with the emergence of the Web," Davis said. The Marriott hotel group agrees, which is why they have not one, but two Twitter accounts. One serves as public relations and customer service vehicle, while the other focuses on Marriott's efforts to go green.