Is Twitter Right For Your Business?

Twitter has made the news again with the recent Ashton Kutcher vs CNN race to 1 million followers. Now that piece of pulp news has given ammunition to all the so-called social media “experts” riding Twitters jock. I’m going to borrow a line from Chuck D and Flava Flav and caution some of you business owners out there, “Don’t believe the hype”.

Your local ad agency, web guy or God forbid “social media expert” may be trying to use this as an example as to why your business should start tweeting. They may even show you examples of various tweeters with thousands of followers trying to convince you that that kind of audience is waiting for your message. After all, what business owner wouldn’t like to have tens of thousands of people to market to on a regular business.

I’ve read some recent blog postings from “social media experts” hailing this event as proof that Twitter can be used to reach a huge audience for business. The scary thing is that I believe some of these “experts” actually have people paying them money for this kind of advice. Someone needs to step up and drop some common sense on the public.

I guess I’ll have to do it.

First thing I have to say is this. Twitter can be useful tool for some businesses. That’s “some” businesses, not all of them.  Another thing is the fact that Ashton Kutcher and CNN have some things going for them that 99.9% of the business owners out there reading this probably don’t have. Fame, popularity and the ability to get their message to the masses through TV and radio for free.

People, if you’re not an “A” list celebrity or a huge corporate entity with a zillion media outlets to promote through then you may need to scale back your Twitter expectations just a little bit.

Here are just a few things you need to ask yourself when considering using Twitter as a tool in your overall marketing scheme.

Do to have time to do this right?

Using Twitter for business works best when you stay consistent. Can you post messages and check responses multiple times per day? Can you do it once a day or once a week. The more you post using Twitter the better the chances are of someone finding one of your tweets interesting and following you. If they follow you, then they are at least interested in something you had to say and maybe, just maybe, they’ll become a client or refer someone to you.

Do you have someone to do this for you?

If you don’t have time but see value to your business ask yourself this question. Are you willing to pay someone to keep up with this for you or are you willing to add tweeting to an existing employees workload. Again, consistency is key. Someone needs to be blasting out messages and responding to your followers in a timely manner.

Are you willing to pay someone to show you how to do it?

There are strategies you can use to promote your business through Twitter. Do you know them? If not, are you willing to attend a seminar or workshop to learn them? Are you willing to pay a marketing specialist or consultant to put together a marketing plan for you. Just because it’s free and 16 year olds are tweeting it doesn’t mean you should just start blasting out messages without knowing what you are actually doing. Just as quick as you can get your business message out a bad rep can be spread by becoming too spamming or self serving in your tweets. The goal is for people to like your tweets – not be repulsed by them.

Will using Twitter bring in actual business or just waste your time?

If you don’t know, you better ask somebody. Some people will immediately see the benefit Twitter can bring to their business others, not so much. Like I said before, it’s not for everyone.

Jayme Ward is the owner of Digi Donkey, an Internet consulting firm located in Historic Cocoa Village, Florida. He is also the creator of the Cheap Ass Website.