I mentioned that I would address why you should have a twitter account for your business and it comes as sort of a gift in time for Christmas, especially for those who are first timers to TwitterWatchDog.com. Just to give you a little background on where I live – I live in Centralia, Illinois, which is in southern Illinois, barely within the St. Louis metro east. Centralia is a very small place. It is a city that has a annual Balloon fest that attracts a lot of people from over the region, and a large yearly Halloween parade, much larger than some of the city parades I have seen growing up.
I have the privilege to talk to a lot of small business owners. Centralia is a place where people are still a bit hesitant about the internet, but those in business are contemplating if they need a website. The problem is, a lot of them do not have that much money to fork out for a shiny website made by a big kahuna web design company. I offer my services. I often talk to them about Twitter as I believe any business should plug into the social network.
This is helpful on several levels. If you use Twitter to connect with others, and they find you trustworthy, you build a reputation that is easily searchable. You help your business virtually get on the map, and furthermore, you get your town/city on the map. A lot of smaller cities do have a website, and for places like Centralia, it is great to see business coming in from anywhere. The brilliant part about Twitter is – IT IS FREE! 
There are many tools to find people in your general area or even in your niche. You do not necessarily have to have an e-commerce site, but if you have products you like to feature that are unique to your business versus others in your niche, Twitter would be one of the great places to share that information. You never know, you might either make a good transaction over the phone, or actually set up an e-ecommerce site.
Another thing is that you can use Twitter to provide Live Support too. There are several places already that do, like Best Buy’s Twelp Force. Even though they are a larger business, small business can use that as an example to help others.
Going further, Twitter is great for freelancers. Freelancers are small business owners in their own right too. Using Twitter allows them to connect with others in their niche. The number of projects I have paired up with other freelancers who needed my skills are more than I can count, and a lot of them came from connecting with them on Twitter.
There are more reasons, but I thought I would allow some room for conversation. If you are a small business owner, what are your reasons? How have you used Twitter so far for your business?
Follow Nile Flores of Blondish.net on Twitter – @blondishnet.
10 Easy Steps with training videos, live calls and a complete support system to help you succeed faster with Twitter.
Great Post. My company, Hudson Horizons uses Twitter and finds it helpful- I don’t think networking is ever a bad thing! Feel free to check out my blogs too, Nile, I just wrote one regarding Twitter earlier
http://www.twitbit.me/14je78
Twitter is a great tool, as well as many other social networks. It is free and merely takes time to just connect with others. I have found it enjoyable for myself, especially since I currently live in a very small town. Social media techniques work!
Hi Nile,
I like you Nile also live in a small town. Many great things about living in a small town and only a few things I miss having from a large city.
Thanks for the comment,
Skeeter
I think this is a great idea. Many people have interests outside their business and may have joined Twitter to socialize about that. Then you are stuck with that persona, which may not suit the business at all – so as you say it’s well worthwhile setting up another account with the business url and description.
You have just motivated me to go ahead and do it!
Patricia