How And Why Your Business Should Use Twitter
Welcome to the year 2010 where anything and everything is living on or being talked about online. As a business owner it is in your best interest to keep up with the latest trends and position yourself at the forefront of the market. One of the best ways to help you do this is by using Twitter.
Twitter is an essential part of any modern day business, large or small, like it or not. In a recent study it was shown that 80% of people trusted businesses more if they (the business) were on Twitter. Having a presence in social media works, especially on Twitter. It shows that you care for your customers and will interact with them. People like the quick access and personal touch inherent in Twitter.
Dell Case Study
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The Dell corporation is one of the, if not the largest, supplier of prebuilt computers in the USA. It reached this high point not only through hard work and systematization, but also through good customer support and customer satisfaction. In the latest move to increase customer satisfaction, the Dell corporation created several full time Twitter positions.
Currently Dell officially has at least 32 business and news accounts on Twitter (which you can see here) and even more individual personalized accounts. The official accounts are primarily for news, updates and deals.
In an InformationWeek post it was reported that Dell has earned over $3 million just from sales through Twitter, and that article was published back in June 2009. Imagine how much that has increased since then!
The personalized profiles are on a level of their own and do not bring in profit directly. They deal mostly with current customers and customer loyalty. The personal Twitter profiles of employees aren’t in the limelight today, but the unofficial tech support Twitter profiles are. These are a few customer service personnel from Dell on Twitter usually with the suffice “atDell”. These great people help people solve the problems which for whatever reasons cannot be fixed through normal channels.
This creates so much customer loyalty that is is almost mind boggling. Add this customer loyalty to the huge following Dell has on all of it’s other profiles, and this gives Dell a very powerful marketing advantage.
Why You Should Use Twitter For Your Business
If the large corporations think Twitter is a good business venue, it’s a sure bet that it is also something you want to do. Today’s society is online most of the time and Twitter will help you get known.
Whether your business is a small brick and mortar store or a website, it can greatly benefit from Twitter. Imagine if you owned a small local flower shop, and you were the first one in your neighborhood to jump on Twitter. You could find local businesses to connect with or even find people in your area who are searching for flowers. You could then send them messages about awesome deals or just list promotions you are running. For an online business there are even more possibilities since anyone who talks about a particular topic is a possible customer. All that is left is for you to connect with them.
How To Use Twitter For Your Business
The most common way of using Twitter for business is to use it to post updates. Most likely your business has some sort of blog, so it’s easily possible to automatically send Twitter updates with each new blog post by using Twitter Tools (if it’s a WordPress blog). Even if your business does not have a blog, you can post:
- Business updates
- Daily/Weekly/Monthly Promotions
- Sales updates
- Deal of the Day/Month/Week
- Website News
- Local Niche news
- General niche information or news
Another great use for your business is communication. Find other businesses in your niche and connect with them. Talk to them, get your name out and be friendly. There are two simple ways to find people in your niche. The first is to search using the Twitter Search function.
Here you can search for specific terms or keywords such as “flower shop” or even “#flowers”. You are bound to find people talking about your topic. It’s also possible to use the advanced localized searches.
Another great way to search Twitter is to use the People Search feature.
Search for a topic name, such a “flowers” and you are bound to find someone with a ‘flower’ in their name or description.
Another great source of niche information for Twitter is a Twitter Directory. This is a directory of users who have registered themselves in such directories under those specific topics and niches. This is a great way to find people in a specific niche and even by location.
All of this will help you not only connect with others with like minds, but it will also help you create a brand following. The more people whom you interact with and help, the more they will follow you and see you as an authority on your niche. Don’t just put information ‘out there’ though, listen to what people are saying and try to solve their problems. The more you listen and the more you help others, the more they will trust you and will be more likely to recommend you and your business to their friends.
So go out and make Twitter friends. It’s bound to give you one of the best ROIs around, especially since Twitter is a completely free tool!
