This afternoon I attended a video conference on how to market a small business in today’s ever-changing web 2.0 world. Since the largest source of income for most businesses, both small and large, come from referrals (or word of mouth) it’s essential that business owners take advantage of the social media space to help build their brand. The benefit is that businesses can do this for little or no cost and with great reward.
Aside from blogging and the use of social media applications such as Facebook and LinkedIn, Twitter was a big topic of discussion. Twitter is a messaging service where users can type in a 140-character answer to the question “what are you doing?”, via the web or phone, that can be viewed and followed, literally, by thousands of people. This gives businesses the opportunity to connect with their consumers on a more personal level with very little effort, basically only the time it takes to type in 140 characters.
Twitter can help build your brand by creating a presence and allowing users to put a face to the name. Twitter can also be used to create and/or utilize a network of subject matter experts where you can share interests and information about your industry. Basically, it’s a way to spread information and build relationships with your consumers online.
Zappos, a very successful online shoe business known for their customer service, uses twitter to show that their executives and employees are real people. The fact that over 400 of their employees are on Twitter gives consumers a sense of the company’s culture, and brings them down to a more personal level.
To find out more about how you can use Twitter to help grow your business check out the following article on How Twitter Can Help at Work.
In the meantime, I got to go update my status in my Twitter account!
