Several viewers have asked why we've chosen to run the the Biggest Problems in Business research project on Twitter. After all, how much valuable information it possible to get when there's a 140 character limit on answers?

Fair question! Rest assured we're not expecting our contributing experts to reply to the burning business issues of today in a tweet or two.

We collect the experts' tips and advice through more traditional means of communication! Twitter is an important plank of our business research, however.

Why?

Well, there are a number of reasons. First and most importantly, the real-time search functionality is invaluable.

It allows us to find business owners and other users who are discussing business problems online, and make contact with them immediately. We have set up a team to run searches using relevant keywords and pick up on conversations that tell us about common problems experienced by SMEs.

We then invite anyone who is interested to take our more in-depth survey so we can collect high quality data in a systematic way. Just as importantly, through a similar process, our team uses Twitter to expand our existing network of marketing and business experts.

None of this would be possible without Twitter's 'live' search. Next, because it is so transparent, by using Twitter in all our communications with contributing experts and businesspeople, we get our message in front of thousands of people.

Every time we tweet someone on this project, their followers can see the message, and find out more about our research. Of course it helps that Twitter has a strong culture of participation and sharing, and is very popular with business users.

In short, Twitter is an incredible way make contact with people who share your interests, and build up your network in the process - that's why we're using it.

The 140 character limit is no problem. When there's something more complex to explain – like this – there are plenty of other platforms to chose from!