If you’re a small business owner, it’s easy to want to resist Twitter. Here some common excuses we hear — and truly understand:
“It’s just one more thing I have to update and manage.”
“I don’t have the time.”
“I don’t understand how it’s useful to me and my business.”
“I don’t understand how to use it.”
First, to better understand and utilize Twitter, look into these two dashboard applications, which will help you use Twitter to your advantage: Tweetdeck and Hootsuite. They both offer engagement, analytics, security, and collaboration tools that will greatly enhance your Twitter experience (and make you want to use it more often).
Once you’ve downloaded one of those apps, head on over to Hubspot to read their amazing Twitter Marketing Hub, which includes information about building your Twitter community, best practices for brands, Twitter dos and don’ts and much more.
Twitter truly is a useful tool for small business owners, so if you’ve long considered hopping on the bandwagon but haven’t made the leap yet, here are ten reasons your small business should be on Twitter:
1. Share information: This is the most obvious way you can use Twitter. Share the news about your new product, accolades, new hires, or general industry info. Tweet photos of your new office, videos of your recent conference, and more.
2. Increase brand awareness: Twitter is a great way to increase awareness about your brand (see #3 to reinforce this point). Being actively – and consistently — engaged on it will pay off.
3. Increase your Google indexing: Using Twitter as a way to get folks to your site is helpful and will likely give your Google rank a small boost, but also notice that small business’ Twitter pages are usually among the top ranked in a Google search.
4. Drive traffic to your website or blog: As mentioned above, Twitter is a great way to drive traffic. Remember that consistently creating new content for your website or blog gives you something to share (and drive traffic back to) on Twitter. Don’t just blast out links– share information and be part of a conversation.
5. Recruit new employees: You can boost your new talent search by targeting professionals on Twitter.
6. Research: Twitter is a great place to see what your competitors are up to, keep track of trends, find out what the latest industry news is, and more. Tools like Tweetdeck and Hootsuite are immensely helpful for research purposes (and more).
7. Enhance customer service: Twitter is a fantastic way respond to customer service issues quickly. Check out what American Express does with their Twitter customer service feed @AskAmex.
8. Find new clients and customers: Unless you protect your Twitter page (which is not recommended for businesses) users don’t have to ask your permission to follow you. Same goes for you—so use Twitter as a way to scout for people in need of your services.
9. Stay informed: News travels quickly on Twitter. Stay up to date on information in your industry by following news outlets that cover the topics of interest to you. If you do, you’ll always be well informed.
10. Connect: Say hello. Introduce yourself to people you want to work with, businesses you want to work with, and thought leaders you admir
Twitter is a fantastic tool for small businesses. Drop AdMix Social a line to find out how we can help you use it to its fullest potential.
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