Earlier this year, Nicole Reineke introduced Twitter to many product managers with Using Twitter for Product Management. The topic was well received and had a few comments about applying Twitter to markets that aren’t the most tech savvy.

As a product manager in a niche that isn’t often talked about, I felt it would be useful to walk through some of my experiences using Twitter in a niche where customers aren’t seeking out industry experts.

Discovering and validating problems in the market is a critical success factor for any product manager. In my market (medical devices), it isn’t easy to get in touch with distributors or clinicians. And end-users are often unwilling to divulge information or too busy to answer even a few questions. But, simply searching on a few keywords, I’m able to see real-time conversations from Twitter users.

I am interested in anyone who mentions blood pressure, hypertension, or vital signs monitoring. There is obviously some amount of “noise” but the conversations help uncover usage problems and future market needs. This gives me the ability to discover problems, aggregate feedback, and find people to reach out to for secondary research. Twitter allows instant communication to delve deeper with relevant users.

At my company, we had some instances where users struggled to take a manual blood pressure reading. We provide automated blood pressure devices, but also have one device with a manual mode that allows readings to be taken with a stethoscope. Searching Twitter for more precise keywords further validated there was indeed a problem. Twitter is a great listening tool and makes it much easier to hear what people have to say, in their own words.

As we continued to monitor Twitter, we noticed a regular stream of users had questions about how to check proper cuff size, how to ensure the stethoscope is calibrated and other specific usage issues. Rather than try to answer every one of these questions, our marketing communications team created an eBook, “10 Steps to Accurate Manual Blood Pressure Measurement.” Soon Twitter users, who were talking about blood pressure problems, were being directed to our free eBook. There’s no sales pitch, no discussion of product superiority, just a page at the end of the eBook with author information, our logo, and a link to our website and blog.

I didn’t have to talk to a purchaser, influencer, decision maker, or a distributor to discover these problems. I was able to use Twitter to benefit my product line.

Social media instantly connects you to networks of interest. For example, the product management hashtag (#prodmgmt) “connects” everyone talking about product management. I’ve been fortunate enough to help develop the course curriculum for a North Carolina State University MBA Social Media course, and by following conversations on Twitter that discuss social media, was able to create a list of experts. We asked each if they would be willing to donate an hour of their time to talk with the class about their areas of expertise and the response was overwhelmingly positive. Within a week, the guest speaker lineup began to take shape and included thought leaders, CEOs, and folks with enormous amounts of experience in various social media topics.

As mentioned, Twitter easily connects you to others with similar interests, and to leaders in your industry. Individuals and companies can use Twitter to increase their thought leadership by writing, posting, or commenting on innovative, quality content in their areas of expertise. And it’s become a great way to network, search for jobs, and even for checking references.

Twitter can be scary if you aren’t used to posting online or sharing your thoughts with interactive communities. But if you take the time to align your goals with how you plan to use Twitter, it won’t be nearly as intimidating as it may seem with all the talk of tweets, tweeple, twestivals and tweetups.

Chris Moody is a Pragmatic Marketing Certified Product Manager at SunTech Medical in Morrisville, NC and a guest lecturer at North Carolina State University covering marketing and social media. He maintains a blog on marketing, branding, and design at chris-moody.com/blog. Contact Chris at cm@chris-moody.com or on Twitter @cnmoody.