Twitter Australia’s Marie Sornin will visit Papua New Guinea next week to speak at the 2013 Papua New Advantage investment summit in Port Moresby. Business Advantage PNG caught up with her to find out why, these days, Twitter means business.

Twitter Australia’s Marie Sornin

Business Advantage PNG: Twitter has recently established an office in Sydney. Why?

Marie Sornin: Australia is a key market for Twitter in the APAC region.

The country has a very high mobile penetration, Twitter users are heavy producers of content and advertisers are hungry to test new digital platforms.

It creates a fertile environment for Twitter to launch its platform and advertising product.

BA PNG: How many users does Twitter have in the Asia-Pacific region and how fast is this group growing?

MS: There is over 200 million active Twitter users globally and 34% of them are in Asia.

There is almost as many Twitter users in Asia as there are in the USA; the difference is that the sign-up rate in Asia is twice as fast as in the USA.

BA PNG: Why should business be interested in Twitter today?

Since its creation in 2006, Twitter has transformed the way we consume news, information, interact with each other and is now changing TV as we know it. It offers businesses opportunities to communicate with its audiences in a way that is unique to Twitter: live, public and conversational. On Twitter, brands have target moments, not target markets!

BA PNG: What’s your advice to companies looking to get started in social media?

MS: Keep it simple: build your strategies around social currency.

Establish processes and then, test and adapt to the moment!

BA PNG: What are you looking forward to about visiting PNG next week?

MS: Getting business insights from an extremely dynamic area in the region. Discovering points of view about digital media and Twitter  from many different industries. Of course, meeting local people!

And I guess: expect the unexpected …

Marie Sornin is Senior Account Executive at Twitter Australia.

She will be appearing at the Papua New Guinea Advantage Investment Summit, which will take place at the Gateway Hotel, Port Moresby on 9 and 10 September.

For further information, visit www.pngadvantageconference.com.