Use Twitter As a Valuable Business Tool
Many small business owners and entrepreneurs have a negative view of Twitter and see it as a waste of time…but is it?
Your doubts and concerns are understandable unless you take the time to do your own research. Initially, I also wondered how much good could be accomplished by ‘tweeting’ or sending a post that is 140 characters long. In fact, I wondered what I would ever have to say that’s of value in only 140 characters. So for a while I watched what others did.
Twitter is a segment of Social Media that can be a valuable business tool. It provides a medium for you to reach a wide audience in a brief, concise way. The use of hashtags (#) can also make it easier for your targeted market to find your tweets.
As a business owner you want to use twitter to extend your reach by following people who are interested in your topic and provide value in your posts. This is also an effective way to increase your followers.
There are many third-party applications, paid and free, that can assist you in streamlining this part of your marketing. Applications like Hootsuite, which is great for scheduling tweets ahead of time; Tweetdeck, or Seesmic. They also allow you to track conversations based on keywords, which is valuable to you as a small business owner.
Small business owners and entrepreneurs are busy with multiple responsibilities. How much time should you schedule to spend each day in using Twitter for business ? The answer will be in my next post on this topic.
In the meantime, how much time do you currently spend onTwitter each day? What successes have you experienced since you started tweeting? Please share…
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P.S.  Since writing the draft for this post I received an e-mail from my friend Michelle Schaeffer that she's hosting a webinar on Twitter. Here is the link she sent to me today:
This Friday I'm hosting a free webinar about how to use Twitter for business and I'd love for you to join me if you're interested in learning more about how to use Twitter to connect with clients and colleagues, and get more traffic to your website. Get the details here: http://michelleshaeffer.com/live-training/are-we-tweeting-yet/
I caught Michelle Shaeffer’s “Twitter Your Way to Success” webinar this past week, Yvonne, and it was extremely valuable to me (not to mention awesome)!
Now I should be clear I’ve been using Twitter for at least the past three years, so I’m not exactly a Tweeting Newbie. 🙂 Still in all, she provided some tips, tools, and resources I wasn’t aware of and will now put into action.
It takes a while to become adept at crafting 140-character sensible, value-driven, heart-centered Tweets. But once you’ve mastered that skill, you’re well on your way to experiencing the rewards of using Twitter to build your business!
1Thank you for sharing your take-aways from Michelle’s webinar, Melanie. Unfortunately I was not home and it was not available by phone so I’m yet to listen to it. I also appreciate the reminder because I felt that with Michelle’s expertise she’d be sharing some valuable information with us.
2Thanks so much for sharing that Yvonne. I love talking about Twitter — because I’ve found the same thing you have, that it can be a valuable business tool. 🙂
3Hi Michelle, So good to have your comments on a topic I know you’re an expert on. Thank you.
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