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Posted at 10:38 AM on 12/2/2009
Entrepreneur Editor
Community Editor , Entrepreneur Editor

Is Twitter helpful to your business?

The ongoing debate: To tweet or not to tweet. Let's discuss the pros and cons of using Twitter to grow your business.

Shawn Moye
CEO/president
The Moye Group, LLC
Posted 12/3/2009
Twitter has been very helpful to my business. I have been able to link with so many people. I have new customers for my product, and I have been able to talk with the decision makers for companies just from using Twitter.

visit me at www.themoyegroup.com

Nicole McCullum
Founder, Web Design Company
Founder
Posted 12/3/2009
As the owner of a web design company, it's important for me to find ways to help my customers market their businesses online and never before have I promoted any social media campaigns to my customers until Twitter. Perhaps because within moments of setting up my profile iI received leads and have been able to spread awareness of my business and generate new business as a result of it. If you're not promoting your business via twitter, you need to start. It's the only form of marketing where you can handpick the people you want to market to and make them aware of you and your company.

http://www.CaptivateDesigns.com

Preston D. Kaehr
Founder & CEO
Milenial Technologies LLC
Posted 12/4/2009
Twitter is the new vehicle for many marketing applications. For instance my company is getting ready to launch a new marketing campaign strategy via Twitter to help small businesses and we are specifically targeting a certain sector. The response is going to be excellent. Because so many people do not know how to use twitter and so my company, Milenial, is helping them understand.

See for yourself! http://milenial-inc.blogspot.com/

Tommy Jaye
President, CEO,
The Micropreneur, LLC
Posted 12/4/2009
Hi Everyone,

I decided to use Twitter about two months ago strictly out of curiosity. Wow, what a surprise! It's fun, friendly and extremely informative. To me, it's akin to taking someone's vitals to get a feel for what's happening "now."
Moreover, it gives one the opportunity to rub elbows with some very interesting people and to "listen" to what they have to say. Similar to a bystander at the corner store taking it all in.

I do not presently use this platform to promote or sell any of my services or products nor do I plan to anytime soon. My website, blogs and participation in entrepreneurial forums, workshops, etc. gives me plenty of opportunity for that.

I use twitter exclusively to socialize, inform and sometimes pass on educational micro-content to help small biz people and others who request it (direct message feature).

Tweets, as you know, can be linked to your other sites in real time and act as a "spreader" of the word to create connectivity with your other marketing platforms. That benefit really puts the "follow me" invitation to work on your team without the pomp and circumstance featured in your other marketing programs.

Believe it or not, there are many people out there who just want to chat or create an informal relationship through sharing spontaneous thoughts and incidents as they occur, and for me, that is where the magic is.

By just listening and observing others you can begin the marketing process without being obvious about it. Moreover, when you decide to follow someone of interest, you are now acting more like a customer than a marketeer. And, if you create just enough curiosity with your passive presence or interesting micro-content, you just might get noticed and followed in return.

To close, Spencer Tracy once said - "Acting is easy, just don't get caught doing it!" Well, I believe that Twitterer's should follow that same advice - it's ok to market, prospect, generate leads and sell - just don't get caught doing it.

On Twitter, you can just be yourself - friendly, responsive and helpful to others and leave the Obama party crashing instincts to your other sites. I assure you, the rest will take care of itself.

That's a Promise!

Tommy Jaye

P.S. I can hear that "spreading" machine cranking itself up!


Andrea Johnson
President
GMMG
Posted 12/4/2009
TWITTER IS GOOD DEPENDING ON WHAT YOU ARE USING IT FOR OR WHO YOU ARE FOLLOWING.... BUT SITES LIKE WWW.SOCIALLYBUZZ.COM, CAN TAKE THE "HARD" out of Social Media Marketing. 80% of celebrities and 10% of fortune 500 companies use www.sociallybuzz.com for advance social media strategy...yeah check it out
www.sociallybuzz.com

Kartik Isvarmurti
CEO
VMG BPO
Posted 12/8/2009
Tommy Jaye makes an excellent point - Twitter is a great way to listen in and see what's happening in your market, with your competitors and what people are saying about you.

Barbara Davis
President
E2 Consulting
Posted 12/8/2009
I have to admit, I am a new convert to using Twitter. I have been using Linked In and RQNG but even those have now been ramped up.

My biggest concern was that they were not an appropriate way to advertise my business if I wanted potential clients to take me seriously. I thought it would project an unprofessional image. What I have discovered is quite the opposite. I hvae discovered that while I the investment may not pay off as quickly as other marketing, it supports positioning our company in the thought leadership and experts in our areas.

As we build, it people are taking notice. The momentum that our branding is getting is incredible! On RQNG, we have reached the 2nd largest group in under 5 weeks with 36 members! Withe the levels of visibility we are getting, it is a matter of converting that interest and traffic into sales and long term relatinships.

Posted 12/8/2009
Business are using Twitter as way of extending their customer service, keeping interested parties up to date on their latest news and giving exclusive deals to their followers. It allows companies to do a better job at reaching out to the consumers, create a branding awareness and marketing channel.

http://www.goarticles.com/cgi-bin/showa.cgi?C=2300082

Juana Morrow
Mr
D&G solution
Posted 12/10/2009
Actually i like twitter for my business it is just excellent for increasing our business and i can reach fast to my business customer as well as partners.it will give latest news updates for my business and exclusive deals to their followers.

just take a look :http://www.afowr.com/digital-entertainment/satellitetvforpc-reviews/

Annie Carey
Marketing Goddess (Director)
Clean Air Lawn Care
Posted 12/14/2009
Twitter is a great tool and can also be a black hole with your time (as can other social media sites). The key is to gain as many followers as possible and then to keep them and encourage them to get your name out there to their followers. Mix any marketing/sales tweets with educational/informative tweets to make others want to keep following you and also make them want to ReTweet your posts and encourage others to follow you through things like Follow Friday... Clean Air Lawn Care can be found by going to www.twitter.com/cleanairlawninc if you would like to see an example!

Raphael Baker
Editor-In-Chief
Rags 'N' Riches Magazine
Posted 12/15/2009
Twitter has been an excellent way for me to promote my business. Additionally, it has helped me to network and meet some amazing people that I possibly would have never met through traditional methods.

Tom Billard
Independent Watkins Asscociate
Watkins
Posted 12/21/2009
I am sure learning alot about social media marketing just being on there as i am getting lots of info sent to me, saving me time at the library
tom http://www.morethanpepper.com

Ty Thompson
Owner
Gynx Design
Posted 12/23/2009
As a owner of a creative website design agency I must constantly keep in contact with the public and notify them of the progress of my agency. Twitter has helped me to achieve this. Twitter is the way to go if you looking for a up to the minute news feed of various companies.

Ty Thompson
www.gynxdesign.com

JAMES MAIOHO
Principal
The Madko Group
Posted 12/30/2009
Twitter in particular CAN be very helpful to your business.It can also be very harmful to your message. If used in the proper context, it is a fantastic way to disseminate pertinent information to your TRIBE. Your effective use of Twitter will really depend, in my opinion, on how you built your following. There are a lot of generators that produce reciprocal followers. People tend to get hung up on this shotgun approach to social media. It can work in some instances...but its better to build a following based on your content. Naturally, organically. Its more effective to have 150 committed followers who identify themselves with your particular brand of good or service, than 1200 reciprocal followers that don't even notice your tweets They will act as an advocate, through passion and their own (self identifying need fulfillment).

Be conscious, patient, persistent in your use of Twitter and other Social Media. Don't try to build Rome in a Day or a week.

Embrace the new marketing mindset and give away as much value as you can. Your tribe of followers will drive people TO you.

Margy Rydzynski
Founder and Administrator
Arlington Entrepreneurs
Posted 1/5/2010
Actually, I prefer Facebook for business presences. I find Twitter a bit more difficult for people to comprehend and to navigate. Then again, I work with a somewhat older demographic.

Margy Rydzynski
Founder and Administrator
Arlington Entrepreneurs
Posted 1/5/2010
Very insightful. Thanks for posting!

Tracy Wright
Founder & CEO
Executees, Inc.
Posted 2/2/2010
Twitter is a great way to connect to people, and great for announcing new products that we offer.
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