How Small Businesses Can Get a Handle on Twitter

TweetDeck (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Maybe you’ve thought about using Twitter or you have an account and sporadically go in, toss in a few tweets and call it a day?  But are you using Twitter to really promote your small business and reinforce your brand?

Twitter, at first glance, with its 140 character limit, shortened urls and hashtags strewn every which way can seem confusing but it also packs a powerful punch!

Think of Twitter as the modern word-of-mouth.

Here are a some ways your small business can use Twitter:

• Find interesting information and ideas that are related to your business (this is the most time-consuming part) and share it with your followers BUT don’t overdo it with the hard-sell. No one loves a spammer.
• Showcase your knowledge (and show off your sparkling personality) by answering questions and engaging with other users. Tweet by tweet, you are building relationships, clout, and reinforcing your brand. Engage!
• Don’t disappear for long periods of time. In fact, make sure you’re willing  to commit to tweeting (posting) around five or six times a day. Check out Tweetdeck and Hootsuite to schedule and manage your postings if you absolutely have to, but remember, Twitter is social, automated tweets are not.  Got it?
• Research the competition (via Twitter Search) and find out what people are saying about a specific topic.
• Follow people and companies that pertain to your business.
• Compose a couple of daily tweets that link back to your blog or website (don’t do this on all your tweets, that’s spamming).

Need help finding followers?  Here’s a great article by AllTwitter to get you started.  Is there a way that you are already using Twitter for your business that generates leads?  What are they?  As always, remember that social media takes time and commitment.  Nothing ventured, nothing gained, so go out into you Twitterverse, be genuine and have some fun.

Michelle Murphy/At Net Media

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