Launching a product with twitter

Launching a new product or a new version usually has lots of media support. While it is possible to carefully plan and embargo launch news to journalist and most of high profile bloggers, there is still a question how to follow and control the aftermath of public opinion after the news breaks and people start trying it out.
One of the tools that can help with this is Twitter, a micro-blogging tool which is often used to communicate what one is doing and what their current thoughts and opinions are. It is also used as a tool to notify other people in persons network of followers of new things either in encouraging or discouraging way.
There are three basic steps in creating your twitter presence:

Identifying the trends and chatter about your product
Getting a voice of your own
Engaging your users in a debate

Identifying the trends

Most of Twitter network together with its messages is public. Even more, there are built-in monitoring tools that allow network-wide tracking of specific (key)words. On top of this there is a number of tools that allow of following and profiling of different trends within the network.
Tracking of keywords is done using track command which can be issued either to instant messaging interface or via the mobile device. This allows one to get almost real time notifications when somebody within network mentions the tracked keyword.
Alternatively it is also possible to use tools like TweetScan that allows for searching through history for the keywords. This method is less useful when you engage in conversations as you miss the specific time window in which the person is talking about the product, but it does require less active involvement.

Getting the voice of your own

Having an account on Twitter is easy and free. Signing up and starting to broadcast messages should not present you with a problem. Depending on a company there might be different

Twittering styles one can assume, from more conservative one where you just broadcast news and new blog posts and such, to very active one where you @reply to other users and actively talk about things that are happening to you and your team.
Having a ‘companyname’ or ‘productname’ username, allows people to refer to you in @reply fashion and directly refer to you.

Engaging your users in a debate

Armed with your own Twitter account and tracking tools, the only thing left for you to do is to @reply to your new fans and to follow them. Most of them will follow you back, which in turn will give you a chance to broadcast what you want to say. Depending on the style of your messages you might get a lot of passive observers or just a hand-ful of active participants.
You should also not forget to actually advertise your Twitter account. Twitter offers a nice collection of widgets, together with a substantial list on unofficial wiki. Throw it in a sidebar of your blog, and the amount of followers you get will increase.
The other thing you can do is as your product becomes more mashable and you relationship with other companies forms, ask them to write about you on your twitter, and don’t forget to return the favor.
The messages

While working on you online Twitter presence, remember that here your users have a very loud voice. Instead of arguing rather admit your mistakes and write about how you are working on fixing things. You’ll win over a lot of fans this way.

Lessons learned

Having a voice in twitter, and quickly responding to user questions helps you with getting that extra inch in user support. Happy users are also more likely to write nice things about you which gets you some more extra buzz which is almost welcome when you’re starting up.