Getting Customers All-A-Twitter

I know, I know – everyone’s talking about Twitter, it’s the buzzword du jour – but don’t let that stop you from considering jumping on the bandwagon.

From the point of view of a business owner there are two really good reasons why you should be on Twitter (and to some extent this applies to all of the social media sites).

Protecting your brand – if someone unscrupulous backs your brand name on Twitter before you act, they can cause untold damage to brand perception that will be time-consuming, and potentially expensive, to rectify.

Engage your audience – Twitter is a fantastic opportunity to grab the zeitgeist of your consumer-base, a quick 140 character post can spark a conversation that leads to countless conversions. By humanising yourself as a business owner, and by extension your brand, you can connect with your audience on a personal level. Personal identification with brands is one of the major contributing factors for brand loyalty and if that’s not worth the occasional 140 characters, I don’t know what is.

For a great example of someone who’s doing it right is Virgin Group Chairman Richard Branson (@richardbranson). Though new to the service, he’s already amassed 43,000 followers who actively want to hear about his new business ventures – such as the recent Around the World in 8 Days promotion. Whether he’ll keep up the tweets in between promotions we shall have to see, I certainly hope so.

Are you already seeing the benefits of twitter? Why not share your experiences (and get in a shameless plug) in the comments.