Small Business Twitter Tips

Twitter for business has become a very popular and effective tool for small business and home-based entrepreneurs. It's become a great way to reach out to new prospects and keep a trusted connection with existing clients.

Customers today are getting more difficult to attract. Part of the reason is that they don't like the in-your-face marketing that is all too common today. Twitter gives you a chance to connect and let your followers decide if you're interesting enough to continue to follow or not. And hopefully interesting enough to do business with.

Twitter is not only a wonderful social networking tool but it is also very effective when used efficiently as a PR weapon. Small business Twitter users have found that it can raise their leads in just a few days worth of twittering.

So you're asking how you can use Twitter for your business?

1.) Look for your friends in real life

Twitter is different than other social networking sites. 'Followers' on Twitter are different than 'Friends' on Facebook. Unlike Facebook, not all of your Twitter followers will be friends - many will be customers. But you still want to have a solid base of people who you consider friends following you on Twitter to get started with.

It is not a good idea to go around adding anyone who you see is active on Twitter. In Twitter world, that can be annoying to its users. Build your followers deliberately and a little more slowly and start by following people you know.

2.) Search for people who tweet about your industry - they are your niche

Follow people who are smart in your business. And look for people who follow them for you to follow. Get a re-follow will build your follower list with the right profile of followers.

Make sure that you look for people who might be interested in what you have to offer and don't send a Tweet that is overtly asking for a sale. Twitter users don't like spam...but then again, who does?

If you want to effectively apply small business twittering, you should start of actually reading what prospective clients say in their Tweets and give a smart "tweetback" before you follow him or her on Twitter.

3.) Be proud of your business, but don't be TOO proud

If you Twitter for business, it's okay to let people know what you do and about your business. But don't mention promos every single time you post a tweet. That's spamming...and people will begin to tune you out.

If you come off too cocky and annoying, no one will start following you and those who did before will un-follow you. Instead, tweet about your industry, relate your tweetbacks to it and even post in some links. But don't cross the spam border.

Most Twitter successes come from genuine concern of the small business Twitters. Clients develop real interest and attention when they realize that the people who are meticulously maintaining the Twitter profile really wants to help them.

Small business Twitter usage is great when you want to directly reach your target market. Just make sure that you use it correctly. Make sure that at least an hour is spent in maintaining your Twitter account, so that your profile would be active, and remain interesting to people.