One of my favorite things about Twitter is how it enables me (and you) to listen to what our customers, prospects, and demographic are saying. What do they want? What do they hate? What do they love? What are their pain points? [In case you’ve not heard of Twitter, let’s just say you should take a few minutes to go find out more.]

A smart business can use this information to find opportunity. I do it every day. It’s helping me formulate strategies and tools that will shape the future of my business. Sure, there’s some noise, but it is surprising how much great insight can be found by listening.

In addition to listening to general ideas and discussion, some businesses are big enough to actually be talked about. And the really smart ones are listening!

Take KickApps (a social media community platform) for example. I’m not really a customer per se. More of a casual experimenter. I see the potential, but just haven’t found the right fit yet. I have an account, but only piddle around with it when I want to test a new feature, or experiment with a new idea. I highly doubt they’ve ever made a penny off me.

But that didn’t stop them from listening!

What did they hear? Well, today, I mused, oh so briefly — wondering why they weren’t on Twitter. (I mean, they’re a social media company… and I would guess a big percentage of their customer base, and an even bigger percentage of their demographic is on Twitter.)

Here’s my tweet:

I certainly never thought they would ‘hear’ me. They didn’t seem to be there to hear.

…

BUT. They were listening.

I’m not sure how, but probably through the power of Twitter’s search feature combined with the power of RSS feeds, they did hear me. And in less time than it takes to fly New York to Los Angeles, they responded (and signed up for an official Twitter account.)

Forget why they waited. The fact that they heard their base wondering ‘why not?’ was enough to move them to action. That’s smart.

So, are you listening? How? Has it paid off? If you’re not, how can you start listening?