Twitter

[peteark]

Everywhere I look I find someone mentioning 'twitter'

Could we have a debate on the subject as I could be missing something here.

When asked by my friends, clients and associates I simply say its an addictive tool, that has little place in the small business world. I have to say my thoughts are not shared by the people I know.

My reasons for dismissing Twitter

Time is always an issue for me, if I do get some spare time, I like to use it wisely, be that tweaking my site or writing content for my site/blog. Spending all day saying, 'Pete has just put the kettle on again' and worse, following people who are doing the same seems as much as a waste of time as me telling the wife not to spend too much down the shops.

Saying all that I have an open mind and just maybe I am missing the point here

[stugster]

I've recently signed up to Twitter - and yes, there are loads of posts on forums around the Internet just now about how good it is.

I don't have the time to "Tweet", and I'm yet to work out what importance it actually has for my business.

[peteark]

Stu if you find out how it helps your business, let me know

I know tons of people who own a small business, spend all day twittering and when I ask them how much business do you get directly from your website, they reply nothing. This makes little sense to me

[Gordon N]

From what I can tell to achieve any measurable result in relation to online marketing, it would require first building a huge following somehow (time consuming). Once established in order not to be classed as a spam artist you would then have to develop a clever viral campaign, using your following as a first point of distribution.... hmmm

Other than that you can stick a few links on your page and in your posts, although I am not convinced they will carry any weight as far a link building goes...

I too am still learning how best to tweet, but until such times as I discover a true business benefit I will keep it as fun - we all need a little time for fun after all. All work and no play.......

[KingdomOfAdventure]

I've not signed up... yet.

The only reason I can see me using is to announce stock arrivals and events at the shop once we open.
I'll be posting things like that on the website anyway but if by using Twitter/Facebook/Whatever I can get the message out quicker then all the better. I wonder if it might also encourage customer feedback...

Just bear in mind that it's 100% public and everyone can see what you send as a message.

[stugster]

Originally Posted by escapistthx

Just bear in mind that it's 100% public and everyone can see what you send as a message.

A very wise point!

Another thing is that you can't edit the posts once you make them either - so be wary of what you type!

[barryhynd]

I've been on it for a week or too and read up a fair bit on it. I think it does take a lot of effort to get any sort of ROI and I think there's many people who are just a collector of others and see the number of people following you as the holy grail. I think you need to be choosy about who you follow as they have to have some relevance to what your goals are for twitter.

I discovered Tweetdeck recently as well which actually improved the experience quite a lot but I still think the jury's out.

I was also reminded of this post on Seomoz which I gues is where peteark is also coming from

SEOmoz | Yes, Social Media is Powerful. No, It's Not as Powerful as Search.

[frockery]

Depressed Twitter addict fails to get suicide note down to 140 characters

[Power Lunch Club]

Originally Posted by frockery

Depressed Twitter addict fails to get suicide note down to 140 characters

LOL...Nice article...although suicide not funny,....but somehow I think the story is made up....they wouldn't allow him to have a device in course if he is being sentenced, surely!!

[stuarty]

1. Just bear in mind that it's 100% public and everyone can see what you send as a message.

Originally Posted by stugster

2. A very wise point!

Another thing is that you can't edit the posts once you make them either - so be wary of what you type!

1.You can set your profile for private view only.

2.You can delete any post then resubmit it.

For those not sure about twitter & ROI I can assure that there is definite potential and you should consider getting onboard. New ideas will emerge and you may be kicking yourself later.

Remember blogging 5 years ago? No one "got it" but it's now a multi billion pound market. Twitter is just the same. No one gets it yet but it's spreading fast.

We sponsored the edinburgh twestival precisely because we are seeing results from our clients (and recently ourselves). We have a private and public account. Our public account we are developing and will be promoting shortly.

A little imagination is all that's needed and it will produce. Simple ideas work best.

Twitter has serious potential for B2C - We created twitter "buzz" for one of our clients and they have just made a decent return on a valentine's day promotion. The got lots of orders, lots of referrals. Their analytics showed a huge spike in referers from twitter. How we drove their followers up was really simple.

For B2B draw inspiration from our experience. We have a private group we use for SEO/SEM tips. We twitter our tips and results. This brings extra business from existing clients. We have recently started getting referrals from within our group. This morning we received a referral for a Pharamceutical firm in London who we invited to join our twitter group. They were impressed by the conversation and we are meeting them next week. If it comes off then our ROI will be great.

Even in our twitter group there is business exchange. One client twittered in panic about a leaky radiator. Within a few hours it was fixed by another of our clients and a maintenance contract sorted out.