If you’re looking for reasons not to make Twitter part of your plan, I can think of three:

1. You don’t know much about it and don’t have the time or interest to learn.
2. As far as you know, your customers aren’t asking for it, your competition isn’t using it and your top management couldn’t care less about it.
3. You have nothing new to learn about B2B marketing, your customers, your competition or yourself. You know it all.

Do those describe you? Great! And good luck with your plan.

But what if you don’t want to keep ignoring Twitter? Well, in the interest of objectivity, here are three reasons you absolutely must add Twitter to your marketing plan:

1. You’re interested in learning more about your customers and what they’re interested in.
2. You either need to catch up, keep up or stay ahead of your competition.
3. You are willing to share some of what you know with your customers and your industry to help improve business.

For me, this debate was over long ago. I’ve been a B2B marketing professional for more than a quarter century, and can honestly say Twitter has helped make the last two years the most interesting and rewarding of all.

Here are three reasons why:

1. A greatly expanded network of strategic partners, industry influencers, prospects, qualified vendors, research and reference sources, and professional friendships.
2. A measurable – I mean truly measurable and impossible to ignore – increase in inbound website traffic that we’ve since converted into leads, and from leads into new business.
3. We’ve “grown bigger ears,” and our whole company is much smarter at almost everything we do for our clients and ourselves.  And we get smarter every day, so I suppose we’ve grown bigger brains too.

I would like to become the ultimate thought leader in all things B2B marketing – including Twitter – but until I am, I follow a nonstop feed of ideas and helpful information from hundreds of B2B braniacs and maniacs.

There are three more things I discovered through Twitter with which I’d like to end this post. Please take my advice at check them each out. I believe you will find them worthwhile.

1. This site, B2BBloggers.com. I discovered it via a tweet from Jeremy Victor with a link to one of its many great blogs. It is now part of my morning coffee ritual. I learn something new every day, and so will you. Guaranteed.
2. I learned I like to chat. #B2Bchat that is. The hashtag (#) is how Twitter users tag topics to make them easier to find. Follow the hashtag #B2Bchat on Thursday nights at 8 p.m., and you’ll discover an hour full of fast-paced, friendly discussions about B2B marketing.
3. Plenty of B2B marketing professionals have helped me via Twitter, so I’ve nominated many for a B2B Twitterer of the Year Award. The 2010 @B2BTOTY Awards are an easy and notable way to say thanks to those you follow with a nomination and/or vote.

What things would you add to this list?

Please take a minute or so to leave a comment with your best B2B Twitter discovery. And, while you’re at it, take a second to tweet or retweet this blog post. Why stop there? Join other B2B marketing pros tonight for a live chat at 8 p.m.

The topic tonight is “B2B & Twitter.” Join us, and I promise you’ll learn something new.

About The B2Bblogger: Billy Mitchell is the president and creative director of Atlanta-based B2B marketing firm MLT Creative. Located on the east side of Atlanta, GA, with a Northeast office in Rhode Island, Mitchell co-founded MLT Creative in 1984 along with partners Craig Lindberg and Glenn Taylor.

Known as the Idea Launch PadTM for B-to-B marketers, MLT Creative’s services include strategic planning, positioning, brand development, advertising and sales promotions for business-to-business clients.

Twitter is one of the pillars of social media communications, or so we are told, along with corporate blogging, Facebook, web. The reasons for being on Twitter are numerous:

• Competitive and industry intelligence
• Brand monitoring and “listening” to the conversation about your industry and your brand
• Interaction with industry influencers: editors, bloggers, analysts
• Learning new trends in the industry, in the marketing discipline, and what the movers and shakers are up to
• Catching up with other B2B marketers (which #b2bchat is part of)

  So assuming that B2B companies need to be on Twitter, we’ll discuss the ins and outs of managing corporate (brand) and professional (yours) Twitter accounts: 

• How do you set your Twitter objectives? What are you looking to accomplish?
• If you manage a corporate Twitter account, do you also maintain a separate “professional you” account? How do you balance the two?
• How much do you know about your followers? Do they engage with your brand?
• Who should and should not corporate accounts follow?
• How to avoid a Twitter burnout? Or is some time away a good thing?

 Join fellow B2B marketers for a discussion on Twitter best practices, tips and advice!

About the B2Bblogger:

An ASIS member (an international association for security professionals), she is a frequent speaker at industry events, including ASIS workshops and IWCE conferences. Ksenia launched @Firetide – with 800+ followers, it’s is one of the most active Twitter accounts in physical security and wireless infrastructure space. You can read more from Ksenia at Mesh Without Wires blog.