Can Twitter Really Help Your Small Business?

Can Twitter Really Help Your Small Business?
Learn how to use Twitter to help market your own home-based bussiness.

I am sure you have probably heard people talking about Twitter and maybe wondering what it is all about.Twitter is a free social networking and micro-blogging service--think public instant messenger stream.These mini-blogs are named Tweets and can contain up to a max of 140 characters. These messages (Tweets) can be accessed by others online and you also have the ability to sign in and follow the Tweets others post and get quick updates posted by them.

As a home-based bussiness entrepreneur, Twitter gives you an open door to connect not only with other entrepreneurs but also other companies, marketing experts and more. As home-based bussiness entrepreneurs, these tips, connections and opportunities can spell great marketing options for you.

SO you can definitely use Twitter to grow your home-based business.

Want to know how businesses use Twitter?

Restaurants can use it to post their daily specials
A ticket agency tweets about-to-expire tickets.
Licensed Real Estate Agents tweet new home listings..
A PR expert tweets publicity opportunities.
Joint marketing availabilities can be tweeted by other entrepreneurs.

Many business people I have worked with over the years have said that Twitter can be a valuable use of time and energy. "I have never gotten a client directly from Twitter," one says. "But have had several referrals from people I've connected with on Twitter."

Using social networking sites likes Twitter or Facebook or LinkedIn can be extremely useful.It is important to make the point of using Twitter not just to make direct sales but as an avenue to build honest relationships with others in your industry and to develop a foundation of trust and credibility.

Twitter should be used as a means of getting in contact with others and getting to know them rather than purely as a mode of making direct sales. The old methods of marketing are getting stale now that social media marketing is gaining credibility. Customers or leads are researching into who is behind the business opportunity to find a real person. I have fun using Twitter; giving updates on everything from how many cups of coffee I've gone through in a day to web links to things I found especially useful or informative.

Use Twitter to Establish Quality Relationships

You can find out a lot about people and their personality once you have got used to using Twitter. You can learn stuff like what they are interested in, seminars and courses they attend and so on. That helps you better understand how to serve them as potential customers.
To do that, you must submit updates that are helpful, useful and educational.You will be wasting your time if the only tweets you post are sales type ads. The best way to post is to only post a couple of tweets a day so you don't get marked as Twitter spam.

Advice for Twitter Beginners

Start using Twitter to follow people whom you find interesting. It doesn't matter whether they are in the same company as you, or event the same industry or have no connection with your business but just sound interesting to you.Use your own photo rather than a company logo or other icon--people want to see who they're connecting with. Ensure you actually introduce yourself to others. Think about how you'd react if you were meeting these individuals in person and act accordingly. If someone follows you then thank them for that and don't just provide them with sales info, give them something about yourself.

And most of all, have fun with it! When you start tweeting, you can find me @karlieval