Over the past weeks I did a Twitter trial to define a small business strategy and to see whether I recommend Twitter as a small business solution. 

My Goal:  To get 500 followers in 50 days.  – I finished with 531 followers and the majority are within my target audience.

My Ultimate Business Goal – Make a relationship that improves my business results in some way.  – Still Unfulfilled. 

What I Learned

1. Buy an app to build up your follower base.  I used TweetAdder and I was able to better target and follow up to 10x faster than manually – if Twitter is for business reasons then it is worth the investment (as it saves time and is focused).

2. Twitter is content driven – great for those businesses that can provide education, content, interesting articles or ideas but difficult for those small business that don´t work with much written, video, music, design content.

3. Having a Twitter account makes you think about your business message and target market. Since conducting this trial I now have a better understanding of my niche and business message. Once you start on Twitter, you realise it is too vast not to focus in on what you are looking for.

4. Twitter is not for everyone.

5. You have to enjoy twitter and be dedicated to it to make it work – it is about building relationships and that takes time.

6. It can be a good way to get more exposure in your industry, area, or profession.

7. Some people are making great use of Twitter – even good money, the majority are not.

Likes

• Very easy way to disseminate information, Twitter appeals on its simplicity.

•  If you like a common topic (i.e. football team, movie, specific current affair) you can engage and read opinions from thousands of people from different walks of life.

•  Twitter gives you ideas.  It is easy to learn from others (especially other  peoples social media techniques).

Dislikes

•  You have to be organized. If you don´t stay on-top of organizing (i.e. via lists) if you follow say 500 people then it can get overwhelming and difficult to create relations with others as it just seems like a wall of twitter.

•  You have to be dedicated to get something out of Twitter ( I am not just talking about having an account but making money from it).  It needs resources and so small businesses need to prioritise their marketing and lead generation techniques accordingly.

•  I think it will always have a bit of a feeling of tweeting into a black hole (unless you become one of the top respected tweeters – which is well under 5% of twitter users)

•  You feel like a tadpole in a big pond.. and there are a lot of big fish out there.

My Conclusion

Small Businesses (including myself) will probably have more success with Twitter as a complimentary way to:

1. Gain more exposure and brand awareness within their target customer profile
2. Enhance reputation as modern small business using social media.
3. Improve SEO rankings
4. Make private contact with some potential customers via twitter interaction

However, at what price?  All chosen marketing and lead generation efforts should have the highest return on investment possible (in regards of time and money).  I don´t feel Twitter fits into that bracket for most small business owners and therefore it should not become a distraction from other more profitable techniques.

But Twitter is for some people….You can make money on Twitter if:

• •  You or your marketing team really like it and enjoy tweeting
• •  You dedicate marketing resources to it – and become a big fish
• •  You connect what you do via Twitter into business.

Also, I have talked about Twitter as a business tool. However, if you enjoy Twitter and making friends via social media then it is a fun community to be part of and enjoy it for that primarily and if business comes of it then congratulations.

My Plan Going Forward

Now I have over 500 followers and a way to build on that I will continue to use Twitter as a complimentary lead generation technique. 

i)  I will tweet (and re-tweet) things of interest  (as it is really quite easy to do) but will not be under pressure to tweet. 

ii) Iwill promptly follow up with any Twitter interaction to see whether I can develop a relationship to turn into business (this is still my primary goal). 

iii) I will incorporate it within my new content-focused educational marketing plan (includes more regular helpful blogs, newsletters and seminars so it fits well and will not be a distraction but a complimentary way of disseminating my educational material)

If you do decide on using Twitter either as a priority technique or just a complimentary lead generation technique (like me) then I would strongly advise that you initiate your own twitter trial where you set specific goals so you can build a follower base and define your strategy.

These are just my opinions based on my initial Twitter trial.  All opinions in this blog are just that, opinions. They are not everyone´s my opinion may change over time also, but I wanted to give my honest feedback and I hope I have not offended anyone.

Good luck.

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