There are so many social networks available these days, and so many options for users to spend their time.

Facebook, Instagram, Twitter - the list goes on, and given all the different platforms to choose from, how do you know which ones your business should be active on? Not every network's going to be right for your audience or your business, so it’s important to carefully choose where you're going to invest your time.

Perhaps you’ve already joined one or two other social channels and now you’re wondering about Twitter. Is it worth the effort for your brand?

If you're unsure whether the Twitterverse is for you, consider these five questions about your business.

Do You Receive A Lot of Customer Service Requests?

Are your customer service phone lines always busy? If so, you may find a powerful ally in Twitter.

According to Twitter, 80% of social customer service requests come via their platform.

Twitter can be a better means of contact than email or phone for multiple reasons:

• No hold times - They can send their message, leave, and return when you respond
• More informal - Enables you to engage in a faster, shorter way
• Real-time - Users can get a quick response, and also update their question as needed
• It’s public - People know that their question, and your answer, will both be public (unless they send you a direct message), which gives you an opportunity to showcase your excellent customer service, while also giving the user the leverage of having others see your response - or lack of one.

Some larger companies have separate Twitter accounts solely dedicated to customer service, but to start with, you can just use one account for everything.

When used right, Twitter's customer service potential is phenomenal - here are a couple examples of positive customer service interactions via tweet:

Are You Primarily a Local Business?

If you're looking to serve local customers in a defined area, then Twitter can introduce you to a whole new world of potential through social listening.

To see what I mean, pull up Twitter’s advanced search function - which looks like this:

You can use these extra qualifiers to hone in on specific tweet queries - for example, if you’re a florist, you could search for anytime someone near you has tweeted the words “roses” or “apology flowers”. Then all that’s left is for you to reach out to them directly.

On a Social Media Examiner Podcast episode from earlier this year, they explained how Mark Shaefer, a business strategy consultant, tested this feature with a pizza place:

“Mark suggested the owner use advanced Twitter search. Mark showed him how to set up a stream with every conversation that was within five miles of the zip code that mentioned the words pizza, restaurant, dining out, or anything like that. On average, someone in the area mentioned pizza every 20 minutes. [One] person tweeted, 'My parents are coming to town. What’s the best pizza place in town?' Mark said to tweet back, 'You know, humbly, I think we’re the best pizza place. Please come by. We’d love to meet your parents. Your first round of drinks is on us'."

As you can see, the advanced search tool can greatly aid your organic lead generation. You can also monitor for mentions of your competitors, or other industry keywords, and keep track of relevant trends and happenings.

You can also make Twitter lists on your account, or even inside Hootsuite, to monitor what specific people, like your competitors, are tweeting.

Do You Struggle to Connect with Customers and/or Influencers?

Social listening is a great, but it'll only help if you’re willing to join the conversation.

If you’re trying to build relationships with influencers, Twitter can help you make those connections - for example, Barbara Corcoran from Shark Tank likes to answer questions from her Twitter fans:

Who is Your Audience?

If it’s Millennials, you’re in luck - 40% of Millennials use Twitter, the biggest percentage of all generations. The percentage decreases as age increases. High schoolers and those younger hover at 18%.

Knowing who Twitter’s users are, and understanding how they use the platform, will help you understand whether your audience can be reached through the platform.

Here’s a few more interesting facts about Twitter’s user base:

• A third of users who follow an SMB have retweeted a business Tweet.
• 93% of people who follow an SMB on Twitter plan to purchase from them.
• Twitter users “listen” nearly twice as much as they tweet.
• Twitter users are less likely to comment, but more likely to retweet. Blog posts shared only on Twitter had 63% more page views than those shared only on Facebook.

Does Your Business Take a Light-Hearted Approach to Customer Interactions?

Businesses with a fun, snarky, or relaxed brand may have a leg up on more formal and serious businesses when it comes to Twitter.

As explained in this Social Media Examiner post:

“Twitter users are the most encouraging and energizing aspect of the platform. Twitter is the most human-powered social network. Facebook and YouTube users often feel at the mercy of those platforms; whereas on Twitter, people are creating the most fun and useful interactions.”

Here are a few tweets which highlight the possibilities of how much fun your lighthearted brand can have on Twitter.

Charmin, known for its sassy tweets and humorous wordplay, is a classic example. Last year, they delivered a truckload of toilet paper to NFL player Jake Butt as part of an endorsement deal. Can’t get much more cheeky than that (pun intended).

Taco Bell also loves to have fun with its tweets - it helps that some of its biggest fans are college students.

And then there’s Digiorno, whose cheesy tweets (pun intended once again) make us smirk and crave pizza at the same time. 

Is Twitter a Good Fit for Your Brand?

As you can see, Twitter isn’t for every business - but it most definitely is for some. Hopefully this post has helped you determine if the platform is a good fit for your marketing efforts.