You’ve probably heard of Twitter. You might think it’s cool. You might think it seems a little silly. You might be using it right now to let everyone know what you had for breakfast this morning.
Regardless of how you currently use Twitter - or how you feel about it on a personal level - it is a great business tool. It’s such a great business tool that we even use it here at VerticalResponse. You can see how we’re using it by checking out our VR4SmallBiz Twitter page.
But why should your business use Twitter?
It’s Free
Twitter is growing rapidly, but currently generates no revenue due to the whole “not charging our users money” part of their service. This doesn’t keep it from being very popular with investors who collect internet companies the way wealthy Italian patrons used to collect the work of Renaissance painters.
Is there anything better than a high quality product that also happens to be free? Except for VerticalResponse?
It’s Fast
Type in your short, less than 140 character message and it’s immediately out there for all your followers (and anyone else who happens by your page) to see. This allows you to practically beam important information to your hungriest users and prospects.
That said, don’t go overboard and drown your followers with endless information. Make sure your tweets have a point of some kind and be sure to listen to what people say in response.
It Gets Everyone Involved
Anyone in your company with their own Twitter account can reach out to fellow tweeters who have questions about your business. This can be a great way to provide great customer support to people who may not be expecting it.
Just try to make sure that several people in your office don’t all respond to the same person. You don’t want to annoy people with seven nearly identical answers to the same question.
And don’t give in to the temptation to have employees pretend to be customers who are randomly saying nice things about your company. That kind of dishonesty can come back to bite you.
Find Our What People Are Saying About You
People will be 'tweeting' both good and bad things about you. And will even be tweeting that they’re just using your service or buying your products. Obviously, not all your customers and prospects are on Twitter. But, of course, not all your customers drive by that billboard you have up on Interstate 80. That didn’t stop you from putting that billboard up, and it shouldn’t stop you from using Twitter.
Because of the way Twitter works, you can easily reach out to people who are talking about your company - or the services your company provides - to offer help or to simply call out something someone said. You can listen to what someone has to say and then directly respond. And if you’re not out there directly responding to people who are talking about your services, then you can bet a competitor will be. Why miss an opportunity to promote your business?
How Do You Get Started?
Appropriately enough, you can sign-up for a Twitter account at twitter.com. It’s quick and easy. Be sure to upload a company logo - or other similar image - as your Twitter icon.
Next, download a free desktop Twitter tool like Tweet Deck. Not only can you post to your Twitter account using this tool, you can also create automated searches to find people who are mentioning your company, products or services. This makes it easy to find those folks who may benefit from you reaching out to them.
Once you're tweeting away, you’ll obviously want to attract some followers (people who follow your twitter account are updated with each of your tweets). A great way to get started is to find people who are mentioning your company or products, or who are just talking about subjects that line up with either your business or the topics you’ll be tweeting about. Follow these folks and, if they like what you’re saying on Twitter, there’s a good chance they’ll follow you, too. You should also reference your twitter account on your website and in your outbound communication (like, say, your emails).
In my next blog post, I’ll go over some specific tips on how you can use Twitter for your business.
Richard Huffaker, Education & Training Manager
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