If you use Twitter, then you might have heard of a new microblogging site called Plurk.  Both services are alike in that they are both microblogging sites, in the same way that a Jeep and Ferrari are alike because they both have four wheels.  But just as Twitter holds potential for you to grow your business, so does Plurk. 

First, it must be said upfront that Plurk has an incredibly quirky interface.  If you are used to Twitter's vertical format, the horizontal scrolling you'll encounter at Plurk will likely confuse and possibly even frustrate you at first.  I must admit, I hated Plurk at first, and almost stopped using the site completely.  But I decided to stick around, and here's why I'm glad I did.

The people that use Plurk are INCREDIBLY engaged.  I continue to be amazed at how open and communicative Plurk users are, and there's an incredible sense of community on the site.  This, along with the ability to have threaded conversations, is what makes Plurk such a huge winner.

But the key question is, how could any of this help your business?  Here's an example of what I am talking about; earlier today, I came across this post from Josh Hallett, reviewing the Nikon Coolpix S600.  Josh carefully reviews the camera, and shows several stunning photos taken with the camera.  I am always seeing bloggers review products on their blogs, and I always wonder 'How should the company respond to this?'

And whenever I will see an example such as this, I would either post about it on my blog, or put it on Twitter.  I would point to the post and say something like 'Here Greg is blogging about his Huffy bicycle.  If you worked for Huffy, how would you respond to this?'  And inevitably, either the blog post or my tweet will get one or two comments, but a true discussion about what this company could do, never results. 

So when I saw Josh's post reviewing his new S600, I decided to try again in asking others what Nikon should do about this.  But instead of blogging it, or asking on Twitter, I decided to ask my followers on Plurk what they would do.

And literally within minutes, a vibrant conversation erupted around this issue.  One follower would play off an idea suggested by another.  One would clarify another's thoughts, and add their own.  Suddenly, the hyper-connected nature of Plurk users took over, and a conversation that's incredibly valuable, resulted.



Now if you worked for Nikon, think of the value contained in that one Plurk.  Here you had several people that are immersed in social media, giving you advice on how to leverage social media to build awareness for your brand. 

Here's some of my favorite suggestions:

tamar definitely would thank them. maybe add a section on nikon.com to showcase user testimonials with a blockquote and a link back!

swoodruff maybe ask Josh if he'd like to be part of Flickr group - Cool CoolPixers. Upload your best Nikon shots.

johnrhopkins I would thank him via email, post a message in the comments and consider offering him some perks when he wants to upgrade down the road

Herb  now the real question, is the brand manager (or *someone* at Nikon) searching for these types of things so the *can* do something?

Now think about how you could use Plurk to gain valuable feedback about your own business.  Maybe you are thinking about starting a blog and want feedback on the best platform?  Should you allow comments?  How to you respond to someone that's blogging about your business?  How do you GET people blogging about your business?

As the above Plurk shows (all replies came within 40 mins), Plurk users are incredibly engaged, and quite willing to help you with feedback for business issues you might be facing.  Why not try the site out and see if you like it?  If you want to give it a spin, here are some posts you can check out to give you a better idea of how to use Plurk.

Five Reasons Plurk is Better Than Twitter and Vice Versa
Twitter Vs Plurk, Who Wins?
The Question of Plurk