Social networking is playing a bigger part in many small businesses’ marketing and business strategies. Twitter is one of the networking tools to have popped up in the last year or so, and has gotten hotter and hotter.
Twitter is a program that you access via your computer where you type up a couple sentences and then post to a main site. Twitter is free to join (www.Twitter.com) and it’s easy to set up an account in a matter of minutes.
Twitter is a sort of hybrid between social networking and blogging.
Just like social networking sites like Facebook, people will sign up to “follow you” and you will also follow other people. This “following” is accomplished by people receiving your updates and you receiving theirs.
The blogging aspect of Twitter is that you make “posts” - just like you do with a blog. But because your messages are limited to 140 characters, some people call it micro-blogging.
The reasons for using Twitter are the same as any other marketing tool in general, and social networking strategies in particular:
1. Increase traffic to your blog
With a Twitter post, you can direct people to your blog for the whole “scoop” - as you can only write a short message on Twitter.
2. Build your brand
Twitter is another place to infuse your marketing with your personality and the brand of your business. You’ll get really good at condensing your message down to the key points when you’ve only got 140 characters!
3. Build your expertise
Twitter is an additional marketing tactic that allows you to showcase your authority in regards to a specific target group or niche.
4. Add sense of urgency
People use Twitter often to report on something that’s happening “right now”. This helps build a sense that you’re on top of what’s hot and what’s important. You can build on this sense of urgency with product launches and so on.
5. Build your list
Get new people onto your prospect list by directing Twitter followers to visit your website and opt-in to receive a free special report or some other free-giveaway.
6. Build a sense of community with people
Because of the “in the moment” communications that Twitter is all about, it can be a more social marketing tool. You can use Twitter to help build connection with your prospects and clients.
If you’re not using Twitter, it’s something that you might want to check out. Many people, once they start using Twitter, use it instead of Facebook and MySpace. They find the “conversational” aspect of Twitter to be more appealing and many like the fact that you can only do mini-posts - takes less time!
Jody Gabourie
http://www.articlesbase.com/business-articles/6-reasons-to-be-all-atwitter-751789.html
Technorati Tags: Business Strategies, Couple Sentences, followers, Hybrid, Increase Traffic, Marketing Tool, Matter Of Minutes, Networking Strategies, Networking Tools, Niche, Product Launches, Prospect List, Scoop, Sense Of Urgency, Short Message, Small Businesses, Social Networking Sites, Tactic, Target Group, Twitter
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