The Internet is making increasing inroads into our daily lives, with a large proportion of businesses now maintaining an active web presence in the hope of ensuring their place in an increasingly competitive marketplace. With such a focus on web presence, Digital Marketing is now seen as an essential aspect of any company’s business strategy, and Social Media in particular is seen as the key to consumers.
Twitter is undeniably a useful tool for businesses and individuals- whether their aim is self-promotion, networking or building an influence. We feel, however, that Twitter is especially useful for individuals and smaller businesses rather than larger businesses, and here’s a few of our reasons why:
Word Count
With space for just 140 characters Twitter encourages you to be brief, regular, and to the point. Writing these little snippets of info or news can easily be fitted around your other duties during the working day.
Connect
The bigger companies, who may have an entire team of marketers or many other marketing outlets, will never be able to connect with their customers on Twitter as well as you can with yours. You can realistically connect with every single customer, and your entire customer base could be on Twitter.
Individualize
The risk for large companies and marketing teams is that guidelines on company content result in boring and anonymous tweets. As a small business your Twitter feed can be as individual as you are. This uniqueness is critical- isn’t that why we ignore chains for independent companies?
Control
One of the great things about having an active Twitter account with a loyal following is the opportunity to create a hashtag or trending topic. Bigger companies hashtags are, all too often, hijacked, derailed or can backfire. Smaller businesses can create locally or regionally-trending topics and then control the narrative.
Cultivate
Whilst you are never truly anonymous on Twitter, it provides a comforting separation and distance between your company and people you interact with. If things are getting heated, abusive or just uncomfortable you can avoid engaging. You can block or mute negative individuals, and engage with those you like. Cultivate a supportive following.
Network
Being a small business you may be too busy to go out regularly and actively mingle with other businesses in the area. Twitter allows you to do so on an equal, balanced, safe platform. There’s no fear of saying the wrong thing or rambling as you’re protected by the 140 character limit. It’s a fair and open way of meeting those in your area.
Support
Unrestricted by huge HR numbers, multiple business locations and convoluted chains of command the small business is perfectly placed to answer any queries or support requests on Twitter. If you are the one running your Twitter account, you know the business inside out and can help immediately. Result? Customer satisfaction.
Economize
With Twitter being completely free, and numerous free apps and Social Media platforms around, there is no excuse not to take advantage. Small Businesses typically have a small marketing budget, and this is one approach that won’t cost you a penny.
So what are you waiting for? Get tweeting!
Follow us on Twitter @RokkMedia
Rokk Media are a full service digital agency, who specialize in the development of mobile applications, software solutions, and websites as well as supporting services including search engine optimisation, mobile marketing, consultancy and comprehensive maintenance solutions. Now in its 12th year, Rokk Media has developed digital solutions for some of the world’s biggest brands and has established a strong track record for their unique and tailored approach to technical development. We work with our clients to develop business focused solutions, whether they need a simple brochure website, a complex system, a mobile application or a digital strategy; we provide a full digital solution.