Of all the major social media sites, I find Twitter to be the most misunderstood. I even have to admit that as recently as a year ago, I was one of the "unenlightened" ones. I had a Twitter account, but I really couldn't see how it was going to enrich my life or benefit my business. During the past year I became motivated to unlock Twitter's secrets, and determine once and for all if it did or did not provide opportunities for the industrial marketer.

Today, I have a much better grasp of how powerful Twitter is and the ways it can help individuals, both personally and professionally. I see how it can be a communications tool for manufacturers and industry, just as it is a tool for other types of businesses. I love to have conversations about Twitter with my industrial business associates. The misconceptions about what Twitter IS - and is NOT, abound. I had many of them myself, at one time!

In my next blog post I'll write about what Twitter IS; but sometimes I find that explaining a complex subject in the context of what it is NOT helps to make things more clear.  So following is what Twitter is NOT.

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Taglines are rarely discussed, seldom analyzed and hardly ever researched. In fact, they're woefully missing across the industrial landscape. When I work with a newer company or a company considering a logo or brand identity change, I generally suggest they consider adding a tagline if they don't already have a good one. I personally think that more than ever, well crafted taglines are what differentiate a company or product from its competition. Advertising messages are bombarding people everywhere they turn. With few exceptions, a company name or logo with a tagline is much more memorable than one without.

"Tagline" is what we marketing people call the words or phrase used with a company's name or logo on all of their marketing communications: American Express' "Don't leave home without it," or Apple's "Think different" or some that are less well know like: Sprint's "Yes you can" or Computer Associates' "Simplify, Automate, Secure" or Unisys' "Imagine it done."

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