One of the cool things I’m doing with Twitter right now is using “Twitter Alerts.” Every time someone talks about me or a keyphrase I’m tracking, I’ll get notified and follow whoever’s tweeting about my keyphrase.

For example, let’s say you were in the “dog walking” niche. When someone tweets about dog walking I will be notified and I will follow whoever is tweeting about it. This way I can start a dialogue with those in my niche and talk to them in real time. This is powerful and one of the many reasons why social media marketing is a “big deal.” It’s direct response marketing times ten because everything happens in real time. Imagine direct sales over the Internet!

Imagine being able to post a new product, or description is a blog post and get instant feedback. Feedback loops are crucial in programming software, where the quicker you know if something is working or not working, the quicker you can fix a potential problem or bug. You can get a market consensus pretty quickly. More importantly, you can get a consensus from your target market.

Another thing you can do with social media is catch trends. See what people are doing in real time. There are great benefits to being able to predict the future. If you are aware of society, the faster you process the data, the better. This new social medium is still open to new thinkers and entrepreneurs. You still have unlimited opportunities and possibilities in our new high-tech, high-touch society.