Twitter is arguably the most influential modern news and social sharing tool in the world. It may not have quite as many registered users as Facebook, but it sure has more rapidly shared content – and it’s in real-time. Businesses large and small better quickly get aquatinted with how to get “friendly” on Twitter.
So why aren’t more local or regional businesses putting focus into Twitter?
Well, most small- to medium-sized businesses would say, “Twitter is only for big brands – It won’t help me increase my bottom line, so I don’t see why I should waste time using it”.
And I would say “Imagine that you held an event that attracted people from all over your area or region to come to hang out at your office/store. It would give you a chance to meet those people, get their business cards, and invite them back to hang out with you and try your products or services. You would probably look at this as a great networking opportunity that might result in some sales leads. It would be well worth the investment of time and money, right?”
“Well Twitter allows you to do the same thing about a million times faster, more often and reach way more people for free – stick that in your pipe and smoke it”.
Ok, I would probably leave that last part out, but you catch my drift. Twitter is powerful for all businesses because of two main things:
- Social media platforms are successful because they allow people to share content – and Twitter is allowing people to share content like pictures of products, promotional videos, contests, news, and user comments faster than any other platform out there.
- Twitter is the fastest growing social networking platform in the world with a user increase of 40% between Q2 and Q4 in 2012, bringing it to 288 million active users (485 million total)– many of which are Millennials who happen to be falling into the house-purchasing, job-promotion, money-spending, “I need help with planning my future” section of their life (great news for businesses looking for new customers).
That being said there is only one way that a business will succeed with Twitter. “Go out and get attention – engage people in a positive, unexpected, and personal way”. Unfortunately, you probably don’t have the brand power of Nike or Coke, so you (or your marketing team) will have to do some leg work to show “followers” that you are a valuable addition to their twitter feed.
