Expert a-Twitter over the business possibilities

Guy Kawasaki could not have asked for a better endorsement of his presentation.

Speaking Wednesday to a crowd about the business potential of using the social networking site Twitter, Kawasaki discovered during a Twitter demo that an audience member already was posting information there about his still-in-progress talk.

But using Twitter was an add-on to his discussion about ways to drive competition crazy. Kawasaki, a managing director of venture capital firm Garage Technology Ventures, a columnist for Entrepreneur Magazine, former Apple Macintosh evangelist and co-founder of several companies, stressed that anyone discussing certain topics can be a potential customer. For example, a person Twittering about Camaros might be a person who will buy Camaro parts.

"I think you can derive great insights about your customers on Twitter and Facebook and MySpace," Kawasaki said during the opening keynote of the eCommerce Leadership Summit 2009, presented by Salt Lake-based Infopia Inc.

"I don't think that any of those technologies were invented for this purpose . … Twitter may have been invented so that people can update their friends about their cat rolling over, but now you can use it to find out if people are interested in buying Camaro parts or vitamins — all over the world — and that is a beautiful thing."

Using social networking sites for business purposes was only part of his discussion, much of which focused on having companies discover their strengths and learn all they can about their competition and their own customers. Too often, he said, companies focus on their competition rather than their customers.

"I admit that there are some people who buy Apple products because they want to hurt Microsoft, but generally speaking, people don't do this," Kawasaki told a crowd of about 300. "People don't wake up in the morning, saying, 'How can I help Apple hurt Microsoft? I'll go buy an iPhone.' That conversation does not take place."

E-mail: bwallace@desnews.com