It seems everyone’s all a-twitter about Twitter!
Twitter, the microblogging service reported growth of about 1,382% last February and continues to record about 4.5 million unique visitors from the US alone each month. Everyone from Oprah to your Uncle Merv from Ottawa wants you to know “What am I doing?”.
Many businesses have jumped on the bandwagon and have begun twittering. One cool idea we recently heard about is a mobile food vendors who tweeted their current locations so followers can quickly grab a bite to eat if they’re in the area. Some use it to answer any customer service questions – it becomes a direct link to an actual person who can help them resolve any issues.
You may think Twitter isn’t right for you. Why would you want to twitter about your business anyway? Just as in the examples above, the method may vary but the objective is the same: you can use Twitter to generate new customers or keep the ones you have happy. Perhaps you’ve already signed up to the service but asked yourself, “What the heck do I tweet about?”
For small-to-medium sized businesses, using Twitter need not be as complicated as brain surgery. Sign up for an account, if you haven’t already.
- TIPS ON HOW TO START TWEETING:
- Make sure you pick a name that your customers can recognize; obviously this would be your business name.
- The best way to start is to search for people to follow. If you already have customers who are on Twitter, you can follow them. You’ll probably get some “follow love” right back if you follow other people – but make sure it makes sense to follow these people. If you’re running a vegetarian restaurant, for example, then you probably shouldn’t follow McDonalds or KFC.
In general though, you should twit first and follow later. Don’t feel silly about twittering without any followers – it’s your twits that will attract the right people to your follow list. Twitter allows you to say anything in 140 characters or less, but that doesn’t mean you should let everyone know what you had for lunch today.
For any small or medium sized business, try to twit about things your customers are interested in and can help them. If you own a flower shop, you may want to twit about the new tulips that are coming in tomorrow and to remind your followers that mother’s day is coming up (they may thank you later!).
It’s also good to join discussions on topics that concern your business. If you’re an accountant, for example, you’ll find that by March or April, many people will be tweeting about filing taxes. Search for tax related topics and you might find people who may need your help (you can search Twitter here). Or, you can tweet out tips or advice about tax filing. Becoming a trusted source of information is great way to build up your reputation. Creating a good reputation is crucial to be successful in Twitter.
Once you’ve built up a good number of followers, you can easily drive traffic to your site. Twit updates to your followers if you have a new blog post, product or discounts and promotions. However, it’s important to keep it casual when Twitting. Twitter is a great tool to bridge that gap between you and your customers. If you sound like a corporate drone, people can get turned off. Don’t tweet too many ads – some people consider that spamming and will remove you from their follow list.
Twitter can help you build your brand, but you have to use it wisely. It seems ironic that 140 characters can make or break your business, but it’s true! Treat Twitter right, and you’ll reap a lot of rewards. One last thing: keep your personal and business accounts separate; I don’t know about you, but I don’t really want to know what my chiropractor did in Las Vegas over the weekend.
Oh, and by the way! We offer both in-house Twitter training and Twitter account management services. Interested? Check out our Twitter Services Information PDF.
Tags: Small Business Marketing, Social Media, Twitter, Twitter Account Management
