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Twitter for small business

Written by: Katherine Liew

Article Overview: Everyone's buzzing about Twitter and how it can be used to enhance communication with your customers. But what do you need to know before you start using it for your business? How can you use it most effectively?

Twitter for small business

One of the most popular tools for online broadcast at the moment is Twitter, a microblogging platform which allows mobile updates and replies of 140 characters or less.

A key discussion point for businesses has been whether they should be using Twitter and other social media platforms with branded accounts or getting key staff to write.

There are plenty of examples with big brands - Dell, as a mostly online company, has an entire page for its Twitter accounts. This includes the brand name Twitter account (@DellOutlet), numerous Dell and tech news accounts and some very carefully managed staff accounts (like @StefanieatDell). Politicians have taken to using Twitter to help them connect to their electorates, with @BarackObama being a key example of personality-based accounts and @DowningStreet a 'branded' account.

These brands have the advantage of having an established audience - they can afford to experiment. But how can you make Twitter work best for small business?

Firstly you need to recognise that there is no blanket rule. What works for one business may not work for another. Plus, this is a new area and we're still discovering what works best.

Here are a few questions you need to ask yourself:

* What do you want to get out of using Twitter? Talking to your existing customers? Finding new ones?
* Is your line of business suited to blogging/microblogging?
* Is your company run by a few main personalities or is it decentralised?

Small to medium consulting firms have found Twitter beneficial because it gives them a platform to be human and get to know potential clients. For this purpose, they have individual Twitter accounts for their consultants.

However, the danger of this is that personalities which aren't immediately identified as part of a brand may not help brand image at all. And personal accounts which are too focussed on the business they work for can start to lose credibility. There's a tough balance.

Twitter will not suit every small business, but the most important thing is to put yourself in the shoes of your customer and think about what they want to talk to you about. Be interesting. Respond to them. Whether you're Twittering personally or for a brand, the best way to get followers is to add value to their homepage.

A barrier that small businesses face with using platforms like Twitter is that the key staff are too busy making sure everything else gets done to take the time to post regularly and build their online presence. It's important to realise that you get in what you put out - even if it's the right fit for your business it takes time to get the full benefit from social media.

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Article Tags: barackobama, brand image, brand name, broadcast, busi, consulting firms, credibility, dell, discussion point, electorates, existing customers, line of business, media platforms, personal accounts, personalities, personality, politicians, small business, staff accounts, twitter



Related Forum Posts
Unconventional Twitter Ideas - Hi guys, As some of you may or may not know, I follow EvanCarmichael.com authors on Twitter for a multitude of reasons but mostly to listen and to stay engaged with our authors' business. With that said, I'm really looking to expand our reach on Twitter (maybe to potential authors/small business owners/entrepreneurs etc.) or to improve on existing relationships with followers. Have you guys heard of any businesses that are using their Twitter in an unconventional sense?
Who are the best entrepreneurs to follow on Twitter? - Who are the best entrepreneurs to follow on Twitter to improve your own small business?
Re: Social media question - Hi Rachel, I'm a member and active user of both Twitter and Facebook, but more so of Facebook. Yes, there is a lot of power between the two when used correctly. The nice thing is that you can link the two by having your Twitter tweets show up on your status updates on Facebook. This alone is powerful as my tweets get responses from my Facebook friends, who are potential business partners or clients. One thing with Facebook is setting up a group about you, your product, or your business. As you build up targeted friends you can invite them to your group and build a reputation for yourself. This is kind of the same angle you want to use with Twitter as you tweet about your niche. Another aspect of using Twitter and Facebook is setting them up to automatically post a link and description of your blog posts. As others have mentioned, you should set up a blog and post content relative to your niche. As you can see by setting both sites up like this, part of your marketing efforts are on autopilot. This is just a small example of what's possible, and do read over the other suggestions that you were given because they are great as well. Hope that helps and best wishes, Alan
Re: The Boom In Social Media - I just posted my first couple of articles on EC (they're not live yet or I'd provide a link), and one of them is the first part of a series I'm writing on utilizing social media for a small business. I've found it to be very helpful, but at the same time, as a small business owner, I have limited time and limited resources. My time spent on social media must be efficient. Our blog drives traffic to our site. Facebook has brought us new customers from old friends. But for me the jury is still out on Twitter.
Re: The Boom In Social Media - [quote="JayhawkLee":1j7h2zfv]I just posted my first couple of articles on EC (they're not live yet or I'd provide a link), and one of them is the first part of a series I'm writing on utilizing social media for a small business. I've found it to be very helpful, but at the same time, as a small business owner, I have limited time and limited resources. My time spent on social media must be efficient. Our blog drives traffic to our site. Facebook has brought us new customers from old friends. But for me the jury is still out on Twitter.[/quote:1j7h2zfv] Welcome to EC and to the forum, Lee! Please do come back and post a link to your social media for small biz article. I'd be interested in reading it!


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