Interpersonal is the applications, websites and social media platforms that allow users to communicate in real time with others. Examples are: Skype, AOL, AIM, GTalk, iChat and Jott. These platforms range from on to one, one to many, many to one and many to many forms of communications.

The first tactic to use as a marketer is to explore these different types of interpersonal platforms. These various social media applications allow you to better communicate with your marketers and to recruit prospects. The best part about these networks is that they are free! While exploring the different applications, pay close attention to the strengths and weaknesses for each. Also pay close attention to which ones would work for your brand or company.

When it comes to one to one communication Skype can be used to call another person twenty four seven. Skpye is a video or chat conversation that can be had, free of charge, around the world. AIM is a free online service that also lets you communicate in real time. AIM can be used with voice chat or text chat. Google Talk is another instant messaging platform. iChat, available on Apple computers, is similar to Skype. iChat also incorporates screen sharing.

Twitter is a one to many communication tools. Twitter is a form of microblogging and allows users to tweet 140 characters or less of text. Photos and links can be included in the tweets. As a marketer, the important aspect here is engagement. Engagement is a key factor in building strong relationships with consumers and I don’t feel enough companies are taking advantage of this through social media. The bottom line is to increase sales, recruit new customers and increase brand loyalty with existing customers. All of this can be done through sincere engagement with consumers.

 In this chapter, I feel Twitter is an important tool to communicate to customers. Although many companies know that it is important to engage with consumers through online media, not many are truly engaging, but rather simply posting information. They don’t form a two-way conversation with their Facebook fans or Twitter followers. By not participating in conversation with consumers, they are ignoring feedback, which is horrible customer service. There is a small percentage of people who actually care enough to give feedback on your product or service and companies need to listen and engage. By ignoring online communities, opportunities are missed for the community leaders to influence beyond. It’s important to be transparent in social media, and embrace both the positive and negative feedback. Engagement is letting people know you are there and listening. Valid points may be brought up from your consumers that may help improve your product or service.

Twitter Engagement for Business suggests to marketers to display their company or brands as human. This article also suggests listening and serving as a resource. A brand can also communicate to the audience through Twitter by learning and getting feedback.