5 Tips for Small Business Success Using Twitter

If your a walk in store, consider finding ways to get your twitter branding in front of your customers through medias such as a newsletter, or if you something like a coffee outlet, having a special print run of take away coffee cups with your branding on it. Anything that allows the customer to walk away with information about your twitter branding and name. A mailing list form to capture email addresses and twitter usernames can be easily used to find twitter users. Consider converting none twitter users by offering to email them a "how to use twitter guide".

If your audience is less face to face, doing a blog post or newsletter with a specific twitter focus that incorporates "follow me" actions including the benefits of developing a twitter relationship. This could be that you will only publish specific things through twitter. If your customer base is likely to be non-twitter users, providing info on the benefits of becoming a twitter user is worthwhile.

Establish some standard tweet styles

Twitter users don't want to be bombarded with sales pitches. There is plenty of evidence that either a user will just stop following you or more politely, simply stop taking any notice of your tweets.

Having some fun. Lighthearted tweeting allows your followers to see that your not just a sales machine. Remember, Twitter is ALL about relationships. Click here to see article on relationship building in twitter

I've developed a daily forecast as a "signature" tweet. Over time, followers will recognise that tweet as me because its my unique message - it doesn't ask anybody for anything, it simply provides a daily, repeatable unique tweet that is an insight into my character. This branding strategy can have stunning results over time.

Respond to customer's tweets

Spending some time engaging with your customers and responding to their tweets is well worthwhile. Take 15 minutes a day to check out random customers and tweet to them. This time spent getting to know your customers can be such a lovely experience. Your tweet mates will really appreciate the human side of the interaction. The added bonus being you will be seen by other twitter users, creating new followers who connect with your branding and messages. This is the stuff money can't buy!

Provide feedback mechanisms to track your success

Andrey Zyk, FeaturePics.comIf you are posting specials for selling items or seeking to get your customers to take action on your website, ensure you have a method to obtain feedback. This will allow you to experiment with various methods of interacting with your customers. Gauging the success of your marketing strategies is important so you can maximise your efforts.

Take a coffee shop, they might want to get orders through twitter, you could offer a "free donut" or free coffee for a friend by ordering through twitter and using a code name/voucher name ie. DONUTFREE. This will allow you to monitor and measure the success of your plan.

For informational / sign-ups etc, creating voucher a unique code for twitter users which gives them a discount would enable you to track the success.

It is worthwhile having a time limit on these type of marketing activities.

If you are posting specials for selling items or seeking to get your customers to take action on your website, ensure you have a method to get feedback

Know your objectives, what do you want from the Twitter relationship

It may take a bit of experimenting with twitter to establish your own flare and style. Either upfront or within a short period of time, your objective should be clear and a game plan established around the implementation of that game plan. I've been watching a lot of new twitter users simply trying to establish huge twitter followings in a short period of time. Big isn't necessarily better in the twitter game. What works is knowing your value, developing relationships and creating a win-win situation with your customer base.

Things to consider in your plan:

* desired outcomes short term and long term
* relationship and loyalty building objectives
* sales objectives
* branding objectives
* how Twitter integrates with your overall marketing strategy