Twitter Grows as a Marketing Tool
Small business owners use Twitter 14 times more than they did in 2008. To reach them, however, you need to know when they’ll be online and active. Here’s your guide.
By Cecilia Galvinalvin
Take a tip from your small business clients: Use social media sites—especially Twitter—to stay in touch with existing clients and prospect for new ones. A March 2010 survey by the Enterprise Council on Small Business (ECSB) that followed up on similar data from 2008, found that 12 percent of small business owners are using Twitter to market their services, stay informed about updates from vendors, and keep in contact with existing customers.
According to ECSB, there are different ways to leverage social media with small business customers, but in general, SMBs want you to focus on two things: providing them with tools they can use to better run their businesses, and keeping them informed about promotions or discounts that will save them money.
Being successful with Twitter is often about ensuring you are at the top of the timeline for small business owners, says ECSB, which is no small task for a busy VAR. However, ECSB has found that business owners are most likely to tweet between 1 p.m. and 5 p.m., and then after 7 p.m. Moreover, Wednesday and Thursday are the most popular days for them to tweet. So set an alarm on your calendar and tweet away.
