Okay, we got an idea for Twitter, its use in the corporate communications world, and then we looked at how one company excels with social media.  But who else is using Twitter well?

Wachovia has been Tweeting since August 2008.  The company uses Twitter to reach out to customers in these tough economic times.  So far, so good, although the company says that sometimes Tweets about specific accounts come in, which are very tough to answer over the Internet.

The Chicago Bulls basketball team has about 1,800 followers, or fans.  This sports team uses microblogging to quickly update their fans on wins, losses, players and pictures from games.  Using Twitter for the Bulls is an excellent way for to fans to stay connected because they can access Twitter from their cell phones, BlackBerries and from their RSS feeds.

The Home Depot has over 1,300 updates in which they talk to their customers about customer service issues and often point them in the right direction to talk to specific departments.  The Home Depot answers tons of questions and enjoys hearing about positive experiences with the company.

Dunkin Donuts has over 9,000 followers!  That’s a lot of people who want to talk about breakfast pastries and coffee.  Dunkin Donuts uses Twitter to start conversations with their customers about the products they serve.  They want to know what people like and dislike, what they would like to see more of and even ask questions about certain products.  This is much easier (and probably more effective) than comment cards or surveys.

You can check out the complete list of Mashable.com’s list of top 40 companies on Twitter.

Clearly these companies fall into a variety of industries and service different groups of people.  But, that does not mean that Twitter works for every company.  It is necessary to decide if your constituents would even be online.  For example, if you were in charge of communications and public relations at a nursing home, the majority of the people you communicate with may not even use the Internet.  So, take this information and decide if the company you work for or a company would like to work for could be using Twitter, too.

Happy Tweeting.