3 Reasons Twitter Marketing is Crucial for Small Businesses!

I am very excited about this post since we are going to talk about a very important subject, a subject that i am particularly interested in and i feel you should be as well: the importance of Twitter Marketing for Small Businesses!
 Very recently i came across the following statement: “Small businesses miss tremendous opportunities to extend their reach and deepen their brand loyalty when they leave Twitter to the large companies, local teenagers, and celebrities of the world”.
 According to Paul Chaloner (Head of Social Media at Fresh Egg): “If you run a large corporation — Dell, McDonald’s or Coca Cola — social media must seem pretty easy. You have a ton of fans and followers who lap up everything you throw at them (good and bad). You could be a terrible marketer on a large brand and still benefit from social media. But what about those of us running small businesses, or who work on our own? How do we benefit from social media such as Twitter? We all know social media CAN be beneficial, but when resources are limited and hardly anyone has heard of your business, you can’t afford to produce multi-million pound campaigns across a multitude of social networks. So what do you do?”
 Ok, first things first!!! You might be wondering, why does a LinkedIn Consultant like myself pay attention to Twitter? Well, if you didn’t know it yet, since 2009 LinkedIn has formed a partnership with Twitter in order to make both Twitter and LinkedIn more powerful for us. For example, you can insert your Twitter account on your LinkedIn profile under your “Contact Info” Section in just a few clicks, allowing people to view your Twitter account name on your LinkedIn profile:

Moreover, when you write a status update on LinkedIn you can also tweet it as well, amplifying it to your Twitter followers:

It is therefore clear that since 2009, LinkedIn has recognized the importance of Twitter as a marketing avenue at such a degree to form a partnership with it. This should tell all of us something! It should tell us that just as we wouldn’t ignore LinkedIn’s “Super Powers”, we shouldn’t ignore Twitter’s “Super Powers” when it comes to marketing our small businesses!!!! Moreover, with 284 million monthly active users and about a billion registered users, Twitter is certainly a channel of communication we should utilise. Twitter’s potential as a marketing tool is being currently realized by many small business owners, who are using it to help their businesses grow on a daily basis!
 So lets get to the point, here’s what you’re missing if your small business marketing efforts do not include Twitter:
 1. The ability to look for & connect with potential customers (from a certain location or niche market) as well as market your products or services extremely rapidly, at a growing Social Media Network with approximately 1 billion registered users.
 2. The opportunity to connect with your existing customers and engage with them in order to identify how your small business brand is perceived in your marketplace.
 3. We want to do business with people we know, like and trust. How can I get to know you, like you and trust you if I don’t even know you exist? Twitter bridges that gap, allowing you to promote your business in a professional way and get in front of your potential prospects who will become aware of your brand’s existence (Brand Awareness). And once you gain popularity on Twitter, you will be able to enjoy the benefit of your tweets going viral (any useful or interesting message you post can be passed on to a number of Twitter users in very little time. This strategy when applied to your marketing or promotional tweets can bring in great results).
 So what are YOU waiting for? I’d love to know — does your small business use Twitter Marketing yet? Why or why not? Do you think Twitter really works in sales and marketing for small businesses? Why or why not?
 I therefore hope i have convinced you of the great Power of Twitter Marketing which i believe if combined with LinkedIn Marketing can have an enormous positive impact on your small business!!!
 I wish you have a wonderful Easter!!