Twitter for Small Businesses
The question many small business owners are asking, “Can Twitter be helpful for my business or are these short updates just a huge time waster that I cannot afford to do?” This is a great question. It can be answered “yes” and “yes.”
As I explore how Twitter can be used by the small business owners, I turn to others and what they have found with Twitter usage. In the next couple of posts, I will share what they have found about small business Twitter usage and then share with you some of my own thoughts on Twitter usage for small businesses. Enjoy.
From David White who has a free seven part series on the use of Twitter
Every successful business uses, needs or has a mailing list. You can use Twitter to build your mailing list in record time… At Twitter every one opts-in to hear what you want to say, as your follower, you do not need to ask, you do not need permission. You do not need to stuff envelopes and you do not even need to pay for stamps!
Top 10 reasons to drive your Twitter following:
1. Drive more traffic to your website and raise your profile
2. Promote specific events / conferences
3. Announce new updates, new initiatives, new services etc.
4. Demonstrate a customer centric focus
5. Search current trends in real time
6. Share best practice, knowledge, ideas and information
7. Reach and engage with your targeted audience
8. Keep people informed of your latest news
9. Turn prospects into Advocates
10. Develop new contacts
So, before we get going, here is a quick start guide to making it all happen, this should take you no more than just a few minutes – then I can get on with the real business…
So the bottom line is the more followers you have on Twitter, the more people you can talk to. Your followers are your mailing list. You can’t buy the list, you don’t need to stuff any envelopes or pay for stamps. You just have to write a very short text. Literally, like a text, you can only write messages that are no longer than 140 characters long.
David White, Managing Director, Weboptimiser Media Ltd http://www.howtotweet.co.uk/
From Chris Brogan who has an interesting blog post on 50 ways to use Twitter in your business. Here are just ten of his reasons.
Some Positives On Twitter Usage
41. Twitter helps one organize great, instant meetups (tweetups).
42. Twitter works swell as an opinion poll.
43. Twitter can help direct people’s attention to good things.
44. Twitter at events helps people build an instant “backchannel.”
45. Twitter breaks news faster than other sources, often (especially if the news impacts online denizens).
46. Twitter gives businesses a glimpse at what status messaging can do for an organization. Remember presence in the 1990s?
47. Twitter brings great minds together, and gives you daily opportunities to learn (if you look for it, and/or if you follow the right folks).
48. Twitter gives your critics a forum, but that means you can study them.
49. Twitter helps with business development, if your prospects are online (mine are).
50. Twitter can augment customer service. (but see above)
To read the rest of his post go to http://www.chrisbrogan.com/50-ideas-on-using-twitter-for-business/.
To be continued, your comments are welcomed…
Al Hanzal
