I hear more questions about how to use Twitter than any other social media marketing platform. Most of the time these come from people who are fairly highly skeptical that it could be of any use at all to them. Fair enough. Here are five great uses of Twitter (that are also likely to be profitable ones) borrowed from this great article at Socialnomics.com.

1. Customer Service: If you have a hard time building out a comprehensive FAQ section for your own website you may be surprised at how effective it can be to crowdsource this responsibility to your Twitter audience.
2. Recruiting Tool for Job Seekers/Recruiters: The author of Socialnomics suggested that employers pay a small fee to tweet their jobs. This is interesting but even without such a service HR departments and recruiters should be tweeting their openings.
3. Analytics and Competitive Insight Even without a formal analytics package you can use Twitter’s advanced search function to gain valuable insights into your company and your competitors.
4. Local Coupon Pushes: We have heard consistent reports of coupon and promotional offer redemption rates being higher through Twitter than through any other media. Even though your audience may be smaller at first, they will be engaged.
5. Build Your Own Broadcast Network: By following people whose interests align with your brand you can develop a network of followers relatively quickly. The interconnectedness of Twitter feeds means that your network can become a powerful broadcast tool if you take it upon yourself to serve content that keeps the network alive and energized.

This is just five ideas that leap to mind based on the article reference above. Let me know of other ideas that are working for you.