10 Practical Tips for Using Twitter to Grow a Small Business

10 Practical Tips for Using Twitter to Grow

a Small Business

Anita CampbellEditor, Small Business Trends

http://smallbiztrends.com

Twitter: @smallbiztrends

Cool Twitter Conference Cleveland, August 7, 2009

How to Use These Tips

The following are tips I’ve used or seen others use with success for business growth

Not a hard and fast formula Not every tip fits every situation – not

everything will be right for youMy goal: trigger ideas for you

Tip 1

Have a strategy – keep the end in mind when tweeting for biz

Don’t become a Digital Sharecropper Always make Twitter and other social

media secondary to your own properties

Tip 2

Reinforce your brandUse your brand name or URL

in your Twitter handleComplete your profile/bioConsider a Twitter landing

page

Tip 3

Become a trusted source of on-point informationStay on point 85% of the timeSprinkle in personal infoBe findable by searchers – use

relevant “keywords” in your tweet

Tip 4

Drive traffic to your blog Trend: 5% of my blog traffic is from

TwitterOne example: 24,000 visits within 4

days from one Twitter article; 10% of traffic “stuck” with monthly uplift

Be careful of Hootsuite or other tools that “frame” pages

Tip 5

Be “retweetable” – every retweet is a brand building opportunityTrend right now is lots of retweeting

(repeating) of tweets Make short enough for others to

retweet without changing your words~120 characters long

Tip 6

Monitor for use of keywords Good way to find like-minded people

to followGives you a reason to contact people,

although requires a light touchTwitter Search and TwitterHawk help

monitor

Tip 7

Don’t forget to “Engage” Respond back to people – people

respond to peopleTry to use complete thoughts in your

response – promotes wider conversation – others jump in and converse

Tip 8

Follow Back GenerouslyFollowing is act of courtesy; actively

builds “community” thru inclusivenessMakes it easy for people to DM youMost small biz don’t have big enough

brand to command large follower ##s without going this extra step

Tip 9

Hold or Participate in TweetChatsA chat session using TwitterCommunity of like-minded people in

TwitterSmall biz using effectively: #SBBUZZ #DIYMKT #SMBIZ

Tip 10

Use Tools for EfficiencyTweetBeep AlertsScheduled tweets: TweetLater &

AdjixBe careful of automatic “add

followers” software

Bonus Tip

Be Authentic!Distinguish yourself from the bots

on TwitterBe YOU! There’s only one YOU

What else would you like to know?

Thank you!

Anita Campbellhttp://smallbiztrends.com

Twitter: @smallbiztrends