Twitter – To Tweet or Not To Tweet?

As the number of businesses jumping on the Twitter bandwagon grows, it’s worth considering whether Twitter could benefit your business.  Still not sure what Twitter’s about? Here’s a rundown on Twitter plus a quick look at features that may suit your company – and best of all most of these features are free!

 So what’s all the fuss about Twitter? For the uninitiated, it’s probably easiest to think of Twitter as a public chat forum fueled by short SMS-style messages. People can ‘follow’ you by subscribing to your Twitter profile, then each time they log onto Twitter they can see your updates in a ‘timeline feed’ alongside news from other profiles they’ve subscribed to. Apart from the obvious brand building benefits of having people subscribed to your news, Twitter also opens out a myriad of business-building opportunities for free. However, like any form of social media, adding content and building up followers on Twitter can be time consuming, yet given that Twitter limits each ‘tweet’ to 140 characters ( around the same as an SMS) it’s a lot more fast paced and casual than writing for blogs or newsletter articles, and can be done on the run via mobile.  In fact, 37 percent of Twitter’s active users access the site on their phones, making it a mobile marketer’s dream.

Still not sure if Twitter’s for you?  

ASK YOURSELF THESE QUESTIONS:

• Want to expand the readership of your newsletters, blogs or Facebook fanpage? As you can add ‘links’ to each Twitter post, Twitter can provide another steady source of traffic to your online profiles like your website or blog.
   
• Need to keep your website updated? There are a number of applications and widgets that allow you to integrate your Twitter feed into your website or blog, helping to keep it updated with fresh new content.  Ask Graphics Online if you’d like to add your Twitter profile to your site.
   
• Want to rank higher on sites like Google for industry terms?  Because content on Twitter is considered fresh and relevant, it turns up relatively high on search results. In fact 75 percent of Twitter’s traffic comes from outside Twitter.com, meaning that creating a profile for ‘Gold Coast Poodle Grooming’ on Twitter could expose your brand far beyond any followers you amass on Twitter. 
   
• Want to announce specials, deals or sales to potential customers? Twitter’s perfect for this – you can even add your photos, flyers and coupons to you tweets via free services like Twitpic.com
   
• Need an easy way to post live updates from events or conferences?  Again, Twitter’s great for this. Just download the Twitter ap to your phone and you’re a mobile media unit.
   
• Want to monitor what others are saying about your brand or your competitors?  Even if you’re a small brand, you’d be amazed what people talk about on Twitter. You can set up alerts for your brand name or search for competitor news in real time.
   
• Want to establish new contacts and network with industry leaders?  It’s amazing how easy it is to connect with people on Twitter. Follow your favourite thought leaders, celebrities and brands and you’d be surprised how many follow you back. It’s also a great tool to expand your local connections and ‘meet’ like-minded businesses.  

If you do decide to take the plunge, get in touch with us at Graphics Online and we’ll go through our various Social Networking packages.