This article is the second in a two-part series that explains the purpose and practical application of Twitter for benefits professionals. Part one, "Say it all in 140 characters," was published in the July EBN and is available at BenefitNews.com.

A fun, simple and flexible way to get information out to your employees and families, Twitter can be a powerful addition to your benefits communication arsenal this fall. But understanding how 140-character infobites can be useful may not be immediately obvious. But upon looking closer, Twitter is a great way to send fast, frequent updates and keep employees thinking about benefits far beyond open enrollment.

Why does Twitter work well for benefits communication?

It's short and sweet

Twitter forces you to keep things to 140 characters, about 20 or so words. It is perfect for broadcasting reminders, tips, notices and events - you have to get to the point fast and entice your audience to link for more information. This is precisely the way effective communication should be structured, especially in our media-saturated world. And this works really well for benefits information, where individuals need to quickly find the information that is relevant for them and go.

Too often, benefits communication is delivered in a one-size-fits-all package that has so much technical information and detail that the actual message is lost completely. Twitter's format won't allow that.

It offers access and flexibility

All of the applications and widgets and add-ons that take data from Twitter and literally put it anywhere you'd like are part of the reason the platform has grown so quickly. You can pull a Twitter feed into your intranet and/or benefits Web site, employees can sign up for RSS feeds, they can get your tweets on their mobile phones, they can "follow" you online.

Instead of making assumptions about how your employees and families want to receive information, Twitter's multiple access points allow you to put the information in several places and let them decide.

Also, using an open site on the Internet (not your company's intranet or secure benefits site) helps your audience get to the information as easily as possible. The majority of benefits information is generic - it is not proprietary, not intellectual capital and does not need to be guarded behind passwords and firewalls.

There are Twitter-esque tools, like Yammer, that can live within a firewall, but sequestering your benefits information behind all that security keeps it out of the hands of the dependents and, more importantly, spouses who may be a family's benefits decision-makers. (Of course, personal data always must be protected in secure Web sites.)

It's interactive

The @ feature on Twitter makes it easy to send a quick question or direct a reply at an individual. This makes the platform incredibly interactive and efficient. The vast majority of benefits questions that are handled either by self-service Web sites and costly call centers are super-simple and do not require personal data to be exchanged.

"What's the phone number for our health plan?" "Where do I submit claims for the FSA?" "What's the deadline for the stock plan enrollment?" All of these are simple less-than-10-word answers that could be handled by a benefits team member or a call center rep with minimal effort.

Of course, there must be some common-sense training that goes along with this, but call center reps and benefits managers who are sophisticated enough to handle HIPAA regulations also are smart enough to know when to say, "We can't answer that in a public forum; call us at this number."

Keep in mind, the ideal communication strategy is going to have a mix of online, print, interactive and hopefully face-to-face communication. Twitter is a great addition, but it is not a communications strategy in of itself. Twitter is just one tool, and you have to give employees and families comprehensive resources and frequent updates in other media, of course.

While there is a learning curve initially, if managed correctly, Twitter could end up saving your benefits team a lot of time in the end. But be sure to set appropriate expectations with your team on what it will take to maintain and monitor your Tweets and set expectations with employees around how to use the tool. And, keep focused on the purpose: to get engaging information out frequently, and help employees and families get the most from their benefits.

Jennifer Benz is the founder of Benz Communications. She can be reached at jen@benzcommunications.com or on Twitter@jenbenz.com.

Case study: How IKEA North America uses Twitter for benefits communication

For its annual enrollment in April, benefits and communications execs at IKEA North America recognized they had an opportunity to take a fresh look at their benefits communication.

It was their first paperless annual enrollment using a new HR service center and employee self-service system, and they decided to overhaul the old communication practices as well - which had been a home mailer nearly as heavy as the company's do-it-yourself furniture.

As part of the communications facelift, officials opted to move to more online content and tools, including the introduction of Twitter. The popular retailer has over 12,000 employees (who they call "co-workers") across 37 U.S. stores and other locations. They have a young workforce; more than 40% of co-workers are under age 40. Benefits are offered to part-time and full-time employees.

Beth Gleba, U.S. corporate information manager for IKEA, spoke with EBN about the company's experience with Twitter.

EBN: Why did you explore Twitter for benefits communication?

Gleba: At IKEA, we focus on implementing communication strategies that get the right information to the right co-workers at the right time. This comes down to being able to strategically design a mix of tools that will drive results. We use video, a printed guide, a full extranet site and our managers to communicate benefits information.

Trying Twitter initially appealed to us because it is new and innovative, but our decision to implement it was largely based on Twitter's ability to send simple, frequent updates - a format we know our employees and families appreciate. The quick updates fit well with our playful style. We also liked that Twitter is a "pull" channel; that is, by its nature it involves a choice for involvement: co-workers can choose to follow tweets or not.

EBN: Did you have concerns about putting benefits information on the Internet?

Gleba: Having Twitter's open platform helps us get headlines and reminder messages out to co-workers and their families. We use Twitter only for very general benefits information like tips for using the plans, updates about enrollment and reminders about valuable benefits like preventive care. If a tweet is relevant or interesting, users click through to a link to see more. For us, this link goes to our secure benefits extranet which requires a username and password.

EBN: How did you plan for and manage Twitter?

Gleba: Before starting, I collaborated with two consultants. We identified topics in advance and wrote many tweets at once, then used a Web service called TweetDeck to schedule them to publish in advance. Once we got started, managing and writing tweets was a lot of fun! I can say that this has been an opportunity to learn more about how to strategically implement modern communication tools within a business strategy.

Gleba: Yes! Twitter was more successful than we expected, and now we are expanding it into other topics. We're finding places to pull the Twitter feed into existing Web sites and looking at ways to make it more sustainable. We also measure success by the results of our annual enrollment: 89% of respondents rated our communication materials as successful in helping them choose and enroll for their benefits.