It seems like Twitter is the social network people love to hate. Perhaps you're skeptical that anything of substance can be said in a text message of 140 characters or less. (Known as tweets in Twitter parlance, these updates are broadcast to subscribers through a variety of media—including instant messages, RSS feeds and email.) But before you write Twitter off, Ann Handley, chief content officer for MarketingProfs, says it has a number of useful applications for media companies and social-media-savvy brands. Among her observations:

Retailers can use it to trumpet sales. Handley highlights Amazon.com and Dell, which both use Twitter as an online flyer for special deals.

Anyone can build and sustain a community with customers, colleagues and, in the case of political candidates, supporters. Thousands of Twitter users, for instance, receive a steady stream of tweets from candidates like John Edwards and Barack Obama. And publishers like the New York Times and MarketingProfs use Twitter to update stories.

In a post at his blog, Rohit Bhargava points to a few inventive ways marketers can tap the power of Twitter. For example, tweets dispatched during a conference can help attendees plan their day. "More and more interactive events have this," writes Bhargava, "and I suspect other non-Web related events will start to incorporate it as well to offer participants a visual way to ... determine where to spend time."

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