Small Business Uses For Twitter
April 19th 2009
Twitter launched in July, 2006 and is fast becoming the most popular micro-blogging platform on the web…if it isn’t all ready. In February 2009 Twitter hit 8 billion users. Quantcast reports that demographically users are predominantly in the United States, Caucasian, between 18 to 49 years old, college graduates, with no children.
- 53% female
- 47% male
- 47% 18 - 34 yrs
- 31% 35 - 49 yrs
- 82% Caucasian
- 74% No Kids
- 46% College
- 17% Grad School
Twitter is a highly adaptable tool that can be utilized for a multitude of purposes. People send out status updates, also known as “tweets” for fun, business, information, news, and in emergencies. You would think that 140 characters limits what can be distributed, but users are still able to share articles, pictures, and videos through the use of shortened URL links.Twitter not only helps you connect with millions of people but it is also a phenomenal research tool. Businesses and organizations collectively pay millions of dollars for case studies, reports, white papers, think tanks, and focus groups in the hopes of obtaining business building information on their industry and target market. Small businesses that cannot afford to use up their marketing budget on expensive reports have some alternatives, and Twitter is one of them.
Twitter is a free resource that can be utilized to supplement your existing research efforts. Where market research and case studies can take months and years to come to fruition Twitter is a real time source for data. Where think tanks and focus groups are limited by size, location, and time constraints Twitter is global and always on.
On top of using Twitter as a communication and information sharing utility it is a very useful and an highly effective research apparatus that can be applied to diverse areas of study with minimal cost. With just a few useful tools, there are hundreds of them, Twitter can be used to research geographically, targeted demographics, keywords, industries, brands or businesses.
Small Business Twitter Tools
Brand Management and Keyword Research
Search.twitter.com
TweetBeep.com
Geographical and Target Market Research
Twellow.com
NearbyTweets.com
Top Twitter Influencers
Twitter.Grader.com
TwitPwr.com
Twitter Management
Tweetdeck.com
Twhirl .org
Through the use of social media we instruct our clients on how best to cultivate a strong and personable online presence. Social Media Optimization is about cultivating relationships in online communities that allow your business to connect with potential clients, employees, resellers, investors, and strategic partners.