Twitter: A Big Deal For Small and Medium Sized Businesses
Most likely, by now you’ve heard at least something about ‘Twitter’ and if you aren’t using it, you may be wondering what the big deal is. And the more important question is how can it be used for small and medium sized businesses?
According to www.businessdictionary.com, “Twitter is A social networking website , which allows users to publish short messages that are visible to other users. These messages are known as tweets, and can only be 140 characters or less in length. Users have found many different users for twitter, including basic communication between friends and family, a way to publicize an event, or as a customer relations tool for companies to communicate with their customers. Twitter was founded in 2006, and as of 2008 Twitter was estimated to have between 4 and 5 million users, and was the third most popular social networking site after Facebook and MySpace.”
In laymen terms Twitter is a microblogging site that allows you to custom build a tailored, and ever growing community for you and your company to engage with. It’s a tool for expanding your circle of networking and conversation beyond traditional boundaries. It’s about sharing, learning, exchanging, and connecting.
How does this relate to driving traffic to your website, bringing you leads and ultimately business? By actively engaging in the conversation and building relationships with those in your network, you have the opportunity every day to:
- Connect, share ideas and brainstorm with others in your industry or related fields.
- Initiate conversation about new concepts.
- Discover and start new partnerships.
- Help solve an issue you see someone else having, establishing leadership.
- Ask for and receive feedback on an issue or thought you are having.
- Post links to new content, projects, or blog posts on your site.
- Connect two people you believe could benefit one another.
- Gather and learn from the information others are posting, keeping your finger on the pulse or your (and related) industry.
- Stay up to date on the latest tools and techniques being used in your industry and in the social media space.
The more you participate and engage, whether it’s discussing one of the above, or even just sharing your thoughts on the restaurant you had dinner at the night before, the more traffic you will drive to your site as those watching and conversing with you want to know more about you and your company.
An invaluable resource for any business wanting to understand more about how twitter relates to business is a fast reading book written by Julio Ojeda-Zappata of the St.Paul Pioneer Press called ‘Twitter Means Business’. Using dozens of real world companies across several business sectors, Julio clearly illustrates the potential impact of Twitter for business today.
The conversation is already there and happening, and each business has the opportunity to join in.
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If you are considering using Twitter as a marketing source you should do it, but you unquestionably must do it the right way, following all the rules. Twitter is without a doubt one of the greatest social media website today for internet marketing.
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