As a small business owner, you’ve undoubtedly heard that your business needs to have a strong Twitter presence.
So, you have dutifully signed up for a Twitter account, have a some followers and have even sent out a few Tweets.
Now, you’re wondering how in the world Twitter will actually help your business.
Here are 12 reasons why your small business needs to be on Twitter:
1) Build Authentic Relationships
Twitter allows you to begin building authentic relationships with your prospects, clients and customers. As a small business owner, strong customer relationships are one of your greatest assets.
2) Share Your Expertise
If you provide valuable, interesting and compelling Tweets, you will begin positioning yourself as an expert in your particular field and industry.
3) Generate Traffic To Your Website
As you build a strong presence on Twitter and offer valuable Tweets, your followers will begin to take notice of you. Consequently, they’ll naturally want to visit your profile to learn more about you and your small business.
4) Obtain Qualified Leads For Your Business
If your Twitter profile gives your followers a compelling reason to visit your landing page or website, they will take action.
Make sure that your landing page is set up to collect their name and email address (in exchange for a free downloadable offer) to begin building your list.
5) Allow Others To Spread Your Ideas
As others retweet your quotes, ideas and strategies, your ideas are spread to hundreds, even thousands, of fresh, new eyes around the world.
6) Extend The Reach Of Your Brand
If your Tweets are filled with expert tips, advice and strategies, Twitter becomes an amazing tool for establishing a strong presence for your brand.
7) Discover The Latest “Buzz” About Your Company
What’s the buzz about you and your company? If you subscribe to TweetBuzzer you can keep abreast of everything that is said about you in the Twitter world.
Get In Front Of High Profile Individuals
There is simply no better way than Twitter to connect with high-profile individuals. As long as a high-profile individual follows you back, they have access to your Tweets.
Think of all the possibilities!
9) Track Your Competition
Twitter is a wonderful way to keep an eye on what your competitors are doing. As a marketer, it’s imperative to understand what is happening in your industry, and your competitors are a great place to start.
10) Conduct Market Research
Big companies pay hundreds of thousands of dollars to perform market research. But, through Twitter, you can perform market research for free!
Through the use of quizzes, polls and surveys, you can discover, first-hand anything that you want to know about your target market.
11) Keep Current Within Your Industry
As a small business owner, it’s essential to keep current with the latest trends in your industry. You can subscribe to the Tweets of bloggers, PR professionals and others Twitterers connected to your industry to stay fresh and updated.
12) It’s FREE
As a Shoestring Marketer, there’s nothing better than tapping into a low-cost, high-impact marketing tool to help build your small business.
So, take the time to build your Twitter presence, tap into its power and build your small business on a shoestring marketing budget!
About Jessica Swanson
I agree with you Barbara…Twitter can be time intensive. And we all know that time is money! At any rate, I use quite a few automation tools (so I combine personal and automated interaction with my followers). But, if you're looking for free promotion, it doesn't get much better than Twitter
I agree that Twitter can be a great way to spread the word about your business or your ideas. I work with authors and consultants who often don't want to maintain their own blogs, but write articles for other publications and sites. For these folks, Twitter is a great way to point people to their work. The downside of Twitter is that, while free in terms of cost to subscribe or participate, it can be quite labor intensive to get impact and your time is valuable too. I really appreciate all these tools that make scheduling tweets and creating tweets much more efficient otherwise it can get overwhelming.
I agree that Twitter can be a great way to spread the word about your business or your ideas. I work with authors and consultants who often don't want to maintain their own blogs, but write articles for other publications and sites. For these folks, Twitter is a great way to point people to their work. The downside of Twitter is that, while free in terms of cost to subscribe or participate, it can be quite labor intensive to get impact and your time is valuable too. I really appreciate all these tools that make scheduling tweets and creating tweets much more efficient otherwise it can get overwhelming.
I agree with you Barbara…Twitter can be time intensive. And we all know that time is money! At any rate, I use quite a few automation tools (so I combine personal and automated interaction with my followers). But, if you're looking for free promotion, it doesn't get much better than Twitter
Without question, Twitter has had the biggest impact for me. I'd say it's been the “best bang for my buck”, but it's Free!
The one change I need to focus on right now is unfollowing those who aren't following me. There's no point in having big numbers of followers just for the sake of having them show up on your Twitter page. I delete any message I get from people who tout, “Get a gazillion Twitter followers in a day!” Senseless.
I agree! No reason to follow those who aren't following you! I always laugh because the people who Tweet about “how to get a million followers a day” always have less than 50 followers. LOL
Imagine that.