The Top Five Reasons Your Small Company Should Use Twitter

Chances are, you've heard of at least one of these popular social networking sites but you may not be sure how to leverage these sites for your small or medium-sized business.

Here are five reasons it's worth your time to get on the Twitter bandwagon.

5. Demographics. Looking for the ever-popular and always coveted 18-35 age bracket? They're on Twitter. They usually come in multiples, so find a way to attract one, and you'll find you may have attracted a small group pretty quickly. 12-18 year olds are catching on quickly, as are the over 35 crowd, so don't limit your horizons to just young adults.

4. Everyone's someone. You don't have to be a rocket scientist or a famous person to stand out on the web. If you're able to present value-added pieces (not just marketing ploys) to cyberspace, you'll attract people, which is very important because Twitter gives the power of choice to the subscriber.

3. Anything goes. Don't be bashful about "re-tweeting", or the act of re-publishing someone else's tweet, while giving them credit. Subscribe to large media outlets to get up-to-the-minute information that you can re-tweet to your followers. It's unnecessary to always tweet something about your industry of even something meaningful. Post a joke or an interesting news article to add value to your followers and keep your subscribers total high.

2. You're hip. There is a strange brotherhood on Twitter that can be developed if you don't spam your followers. Be an interested cyber-neighbor and you'll find that everyone wins. You might become aware of an opportunity that you never thought existed: like finding a potential employee, coming across a prolific freelance writer who can help your company, or even stumbling across an expert in your field. These days, it isn't so much a bonus if a company is on Twitter so much as a detriment if a company is absent from social media.

1. Cost-conscious. Twitter is FREE! Aside from your time, you don't have much to lose. With so many marketing budgets being minimal or zero, you have a chance to not only disseminate the information that you want the public to have, but you can also establish yourself as an expert and learn from other people. It's almost like free access to one of the largest stores of information on the planet, and all you can lose is some time, but you can gain so much more.