Though we’d love to think that it was our blog that has inspired C-level execs to start microblogging, it’s more likely they’ve been reading Twitter coverage on sites like BusinessWeek and CIO.com. Paul Dunay, blogger at Buzz Marketing for Technology, has been crowdsourcing and compiling a great list of C-level executives who can now be found on Twitter. Check out Paul’s post to see which companies have microblogging execs.

If you have names that should be added to this list, please post them using the comments feature at the bottom of [Paul's] post and [he]’ll get it included ASAP - please send [him] - full name, title, agency/firm, and Twitter URL.

If you’re a microblogging cheerleader at your company and are still trying to get upper management to see the value, here are some great resources to pass along (or print out and leave on their desk).

CIO.com

• Twitter’s Potential for Business Users
• The Business Value of Twitter
• Twitter for Business: Four Ways Companies Use Microblogging

BusinessWeek

• Getting Intimate (With Customers) on Twitter
• How Companies Use Twitter to Bolster Their Brands

Microblink

• If You Have a Business, Register Your Microblogging Accounts Now
• Don’t Let Your Business Get Labeled as a Microblogging Idiot

If you still have trouble after passing along these stories, let us know specifically what kinds of resources would best help you sell the value and benefit of microblogging to your business’ stakeholders.

Having trouble selling Yammer to your coworkers or management team? We’ve raved about how they won the Tech Crunch 50 this year and how much we like the service, but maybe that’s not enough.

If you can at least get your team inside the app and get them to start playing with it, chances are they will come around. If you’re still having trouble, send them to Lee Aase’s (@leeaase) Social Media University, Global for a free series of posts on the basics of Yammer.

Lee walks through everything from ‘Yammer for the Enterprise‘ and ‘Getting Started with Yammer‘ to ‘Making Yammering Effortless‘ and ‘Avoiding Yammer Email Overload‘. Each series of posts breaks things down very simply and makes it easy to understand, which might be just the thing you need to get your team on board.

Wayne Sutton (@waynesutton) certainly thinks so. Recently Wayne sent a message to his followers on Twitter asking them to participate in a poll about his tweets:

The poll, available here, says “Twitter is about conversations, collaboration, sharing & community. To make sure I’m adding valuable content to your twitter stream, please take [my] poll.”

The options in Wayne’s poll ranged from social media and online community building to iPhone news and African-American issues. Personally, I voted for social media, online community building, microblogging in the enterprise, as those are the topics I’m most interested in, but I also threw in a “just tweet what you want,” as I feel Wayne ought not let the masses dictate everything he can talk about.

At the closing of the poll, Wayne’s top three topics were:

• more tweets on social media (13%)
• just tweet whatever you want (13%)
• more tweets on online community building (12%)

Should You Poll Your Audience?

For Individuals

Its your call. If you’ve got thousands upon thousands of followers and are concerned with maintaining that following, you have a vested interest in knowing their opinions. After all, most people are probably following you to hear about more than what you had for lunch. If you’re a casual microblogger and are just in it for fun, I wouldn’t bother.

For Businesses

You should definitely be engaging your followers for feedback. While individuals can build followings fairly quickly based on personal, emotional and/or psychological connections, businesses are much more tricky. If the only thing you’re posting is a twitterfeed from your blog, you won’t see many latching on to your account. If you are always microblogging with a bullhorn, you’ll most certainly turn people off. The key is to find the perfect blend of promotion and conversation, and that’s where your followers come in.

Examine What Your Competitors are Doing

Before you even begin microblogging, take a look at what competitors in your space are doing. Try reaching out with a poll, like Wayne did, and gauge what your customers or prospects are interested in hearing about. If you can’t come up with the options or topics (you may be in even bigger trouble), crowdsource them. Gather suggestions from your audience and then run them all in a poll where users can vote.

If you take the time to engage your followers and involve them in your conversations, they’ll feel more willing to participate and you’ll be much more successful in your efforts.

You may not be microblogging yet (maybe you’re here to learn why you should be), but your customers are.

In my opinion, registering usernames in the name of your business ought to become second nature these days, just as it has with registering domain names.

Google Search is Out, Twitter Search is In

At Highlight Midwest in October I sat next to Kristi Colvin (@kriscolvin), creator of soon-to-be-released Twitterface, in a presentation from Adam Coomes about Social Radar, a product from Infegy that tracks mentions of keywords and brands in social media. As we were listening to his presentation, we did what any tech saavy, multi-tasking audience members would do: tried to find more information about him and his product.

However, these days I don’t go to Google to search for things, I search Twitter or reach out to my network there. Kristi fired up Twitterific on her iPod Touch and I launched Hahlo on my iPhone, each of us searching Twitter for an account named Social Radar or Infegy. To our surprise, neither account had been registered yet.

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Consumers and Twitter have gone hand in hand for two years now, but finally businesses are starting to latch on to the idea. Although some companies are using Twitter well and being effective with it, Jeremy Pepper is afraid that Twitter might become the next “you must create a insert latest social media website account for your company or ELSE!” meme.

On his blog, POP! PR Jots, Jeremy lays out some simple ground rules for companies who want to join the Twittersphere. We’ve listed his recommendations below and made some of our own comments in relation to business microblogging at large.

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On Friday last week, BusinessWeek pushed out their latest podcast episode of the CEO Guide to Technology. BusinessWeek’s Rachel King spoke with Rodney Rumford (@Rumford), founder of Gravitational Media and FaceReviews.com, about microblogging for business.

The episode is just under 10 minutes and is available for download.

Rodney identified two main uses of microblogging for businesses:

extend a brand and effectively listen, respond and engage with a target market

drive awareness about a product or service

Just as we have pointed out on Microblink, Rodney agreed that the ‘ultimate’ channel for businesses to use is really still up in the air, with several different platforms available, but the best question for businesses to ask is, “where are the conversations happening?”

From what we have found, conversations are happening everywhere, but Twitter probably has the greatest reach and audience.

The best way to dive into microblogging is look at how others are using it and then create your own strategy that aligns with your existing business goals.

We hope to dig into this topic a bit more in a future series of posts, so subscribe to our RSS feed or keep checking in on our site.