In the space of just a few short years, Twitter has revolutionised the way that businesses deal with existing and potential customers. Social media (in particular, Twitter) is an excellent way for a business to provide first-level support, whilst also allowing you to conduct a very cost-effective and far-reaching marketing campaign.
Despite this, many small business owners still fail to see the point of Twitter and hold the belief that it serves no real commercial purpose. In reality, Twitter is actually one of the greatest low-cost marketing tools that a small business can utilise. It has been said for years that a website is a business essential, but nowadays people are saying exactly the same thing about social media.
If you look at the majority of small businesses that start on Twitter, they often abandon their page after only a few days or weeks. There are thousands of dead Twitter pages for businesses that simply did not “get” the concept. This is actually quite understandable because Twitter can be overwhelming for any new user, with millions of conversations taking place in real-time.
Faced with getting to grips with a new way of communicating with the market, businesses either give up or struggle on, often unaware of the etiquette of Twitter. When you are new, it is easy to get labelled as a spammer or annoy people in your industry completely by mistake.
The best way for a small business to use Twitter is to connect with the right people, listen to what they say and who they talk to, then learn from it. There is no quick way to become a success on Twitter, it is a gradual process that will take time and effort. Remember that when it comes to followers, quality is far more important than quantity. You want your message to be seen by the right people.
Small businesses (particularly those that tried Twitter and gave up) should take a look at WinWeb's Twitter Marketing package so that we can help them find their feet on the social network.