The April edition of my free monthly Buzz Bulletin eNewsletter is going out this afternoon. Read it below and sign up for future editions on my company's website.
“Innovation distinguishes between a leader and
a follower.”
Steve Jobs, Founder & CEO, Apple Computer
With the economy mired in a severe recession, many entrepreneurs have stopped marketing because they believe that they must conserve scarce financial resources. Yet, others are increasing their exposure to existing clients and prospects as they embrace online social networking in efforts that require moxie not money.
Today’s newsletter focuses on how you can grow your business with Twitter, a free social networking and micro-blogging service that enables its users to send and read other users' updates known as tweets. Tweets are text-based posts of up to 140 characters in length which are displayed on the user's profile page and delivered to other users who have subscribed to them (known as followers). Twitter has grown from 475,000 unique visitors in February 2008 to 14 million in April 2009.
Last October, Andrea Waltz, a friend and successful professional speaker, told me that she had just created a Twitter profile and was curious to see whether it could help grow her business. Having heard few business successes stories on Twitter, I was skeptical. Six months, later Andrea has 2,700+ Twitter followers and considers the service a core part of her marketing strategy.
Andrea told me, “Twitter has allowed me to get connected to the ‘end users’ who are interested in our Go for No!® program. I don't push our books but I have had people buy them because they saw me tweeting about them. More importantly, Twitter has allowed me to connect with people that are doing similar things. For example, I make a point of following other speakers, authors and experts in direct selling, which is one of our big target markets. One of these people, a direct sales coach/trainer, just had me and my partner as experts on a call for her 10 day teleseminar series ‘Direct Sales Super Summit.’ We gained excellent exposure from being affiliated with her and she offered to share the email list she generated for the event. This is just one small example of how Twitter can be a valuable tool to get to know like-minded people and partner with them on successful projects.”
An interesting 4/13/09 article in The New York Times describes how many other businesses are benefiting from Twitter including large companies like Dell, Amazon, and Starbucks, as well as a small day spa in San Francisco.
It’s impossible to know exactly what Twitter can do for your business. But why not give it a try? Before doing so, I suggest that you check out “The Top Seven Mistakes that Twitter Users Make” on the 10,000 Words Blog.
I would love to follow what you’re doing on Twitter and learn how it’s working for you so please connect to me on Twitter.
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