7 Reasons Why Twitter is Relevant To You And Your Business

 

I hear so many people, so often, talking about how much they hate Twitter when I first ask them if they’re using it. Then I introduce them to a couple of neat people or ideas, and when I hear from them a few months later, all of them rave about it, and laugh at how they were using it wrong.

But really, whether you love or hate it, these feelings should be irrelevant when it comes to your business, right? The important question is: can Twitter help enhance the bottom line of your business? The answer is yes.

You can hate Twitter, you can love Twitter, but that’s not the issue. Online business owners need to stop trying to fall in love with the various technological wonders and start learning how to leverage them for their business, or have someone else in their organization get on it. It doesn’t have to take up a lot of your time, either, if you opt to do it yourself, which in my opinion is the best option.

As an entrepreneur, you can get away with being on Twitter for an hour or less a week, and still get pretty impressive results in terms of traffic, sales increases, customer service, and pre-sales connection building.

Here Are The 7 Reasons Why Your Business Needs Twitter

1. Tweetchats

A lot of industry leaders still get together online and put on free text seminars. It’s basically free training.

2. Hashtags

Twitter is organized in a way Facebook isn’t.

You can get news and updates about a topic by following a unique identifier called a 'hashtag'. If you blog or are in a time sensitive industry, it’s critical to get news and developments first. Even if you just want a leg up on your competitors for marketing, it’s so important.

3. Pre-Introductions

One of the best ways to connect to someone at a conference, meet up, expo, or networking event, especially if they’re well-known, is to be able to say "I follow you on Twitter", and even reference an online interaction you may have had.

A lots of people know me on Facebook or through Facebook - but the majority of those who I met, who became customers, clients, friends, helpful peers, or peers I helped, were the people who knew me through Twitter.

4. Follow Bloggers, Not Just Blogs

Want fellow bloggers to link to you? Or encourage them to write about you?

Thinking about starting a blogger campaign?..

Use Twitter to make initial contact with other bloggers. It’s a non-intrusive way to begin the types of bonds that result in that last-minute favor at crunch time.

Don’t know what to say? Try retweeting a link to one of their blog posts.

5. Exposure

Speaking of retweeting, Twitter is one of the easiest and fastest ways to spread a link. Get one of your tweets or posts retweeted and you can get massive, immediate exposure.

I’d say that Twitter is one of the biggest reasons why Digg.com is dying - you get more top stories with the option to ignore the surrounding chatter on any topic, not just technology. Twitter seems to embrace the very people Digg was rejecting, and Twitter only filters for spam. Even light-handed commercial messages are okay, and get passed around.

The folks who couldn’t figure out newsreaders and RSS feeds are there, receiving the benefits of this technology without knowing how to use it.

6. Your Competitors

If they’re on the social media sites, they’re getting access to your customers who are on it as well. Some people think having your audience visible and accessible on sites like Twitter and Facebook threatens the well being of your business. But that’s only true if you aren’t in there building the relationship, providing resources and being of value to them.

The kinds of customers that aren’t loyal, or are primarily price-conscious aren’t the ones you want anyway. They’re often the hardest to please.

Your competition is going to have access to your audience whether or not you’re on the social media sites, whether or not you advertise or market yourself. The main point to remember here is that no matter how much competition you may have, your presence ensures that they know there is a better option than the others: you.

7. Your Customers

Twitter has a small audience in comparison to Facebook. But the part of your audience on either doesn’t necessarily overlap. And the audiences that are using Twitter and Facebook are getting the same benefits from you - fast news, free resources and training, and whatever other methods you may use for lead generation.

By using Twitter, you can provide a maximum customer experience in the minimal of time by sending out resource links in a readable style, providing customer service, or taking hashtags to the next level with a sense of community.

At some point, having a presence on the top social media sites is not going to be optional for successful companies, just as having a website and a blog is considered the rule rather than the exception. Nowadays, people are putting their Twitter handle on their business cards.

If you use web technology for your business in any way, including simply for publicity or having a website, having a Twitter handle isn’t just a good idea anymore. It provides a competitive edge.

Thank you for reading.

Jonny Tyson