How to Use Twitter for Business

Advertising your small business online is no longer limited to e-mail newsletters, pay-per-click campaigns and buying banner ads. Small businesses across all industries can beat into the social sphere and engage directly with customers and prospective clients within seconds. Instead of casting a wide net to be a magnet for the ‘perfect customer’, social media tools such as Twitter and other blogging applications can help out your business communicate directly with your target group.

Twitter is a micro blogging tool that allows you to update your status with quotes, links and other statements in 140 characters or less. You can set up a small profile with an avatar, and follow other people who may have interest in what you have to share. Building up your Twitter followers is proving to be a valuable way to increase brand awareness, encourage people to visit your website, and enhance your online identity. Here are some ways you can use Twitter for marketing to promote your small business on the web:

Use Twitter to Share Links from Your Blog

Update your status with a link from your blog to let all of your followers know about the latest post. This can bring you some instant traffic, and gives followers a chance to see your blog, perhaps for the first time. If you don’t have a blog, consider submitting a link to your website if it’s been updated with new material, or you want to highlight a specific page.

Use Twitter to Get and Monitor response from Customers

Send out a message asking for feedback from your followers, and collect the opinions of your most loyal customers – all without the help of an outside market research agency or costly market survey.

Use Twitter to Update Customers with Product News

If you’re launching a new product or have getting ready to ship a highly-coveted item, raise awareness on Twitter as part of a low-cost PR campaign. Twitter users who have interest in the item are likely to ‘retweet’ it – that is, pass it on to their followers at some point in the day – giving you an opportunity to benefit from word-of-mouth small business marketing.

Use Twitter to Run a Poll or Survey

Twitter is a great tool for surveying the crowd in real-time and getting instant feedback. Set up a survey question and ask users to Direct Message you so that their answers are not disclosed publicly, or just have them reply to you using the Twitter platform if you want everyone to see the updates.

Use Twitter to Share Interesting Links Outside of Your Website or Blog

A good portion of ‘tweeting’ on Twitter involves sharing with the community; this means posting about things you’ve found across the web, or other points of interest that you think your followers would be interested in. The idea here is to promote other people’s work/links so that you can provide value to the community at large. Make a conscientious effort to post URLs that have no direct affiliation with your own website or blog and you’ll help build some brand integrity.