Twitter?

[tinytalker]

Hi all. Is anyone using Twitter to promote their business? How is it going? Is it worth the effort or is it not much effort at all?
I am interested to hear any experiences as I am wondering whether to give it a go?

I think it would depend on the business.

One of my clients uses it to promote news stories about either themselves or items in their sector which they think their Tweeps might find interesting. It has generated some extra hits on their website but I doubt it has actually generated business.

The other thing about Twitter is it moves fast. One Tweet may only be visible on your Tweeps feed for minutes before it's pushed out of site. So if it's some sort of advert, it may never get seen.

Twitter is excellent for building awareness and brand 'loyalty' which may or may not translate to sales. The biggest commitment is time really, and working out what your objectives are, same as any other marketing strategy. FWIW I haved a small business that wouldn't exisit without Social Media (offline events)

I use it but have to say it probably has no direct impact on my tangible business and it sometimes feels like a task I need to do to think of something suitable to put on it........most of what I would like to put on there wouldn't really be suitable - i.e. inane rambling and political rants

Hmm, that's pretty much my thoughts too but DH seems to think it's the way forward! But I think for his business (Financial Services) it is more relevant than mine which is selling to mums mainly whom I think haven't got the time to spend on Twitter. I'm giving it a go but I think it will be hard to keep up the momentum.
How about Facebook? Would that be a better way of reaching mums?

We're just starting but have found Facebook to be good for driving traffic to the site, plus it's fun. ;)

Twitter is good, too - we could get into it a bit more but even though each tweet has a short lifespan, we've found it to be worth the effort. We do have our Facebook page set to auto-tweet which helps.

Links on both that go directly to the site work best but we don't do a lot of advertising as such and promote other people's stuff, too. Also, we have a blog on the site with outside contributors which seems to work well!

Again, it's fun and fairly relevant.

The best way to get guaranteed traffic is Google Adwords, though!

JJ - you are soooo doing it right it sounds (and yes, I am qualified to judge lol )

TT - mums are on twitter believe me - the place is awash with these 'mummy bloggers' who are basically using it to link to their blogs - if you have a product, giving them prizes and review stock will ensure your message is out there too.

tt - I'm on Twitter which is why I haven't been on mn for ages. It is a big amount of work. 60% of Twitter users leave after one month because it is hard to keep up momentum and get followers. I've worked hard and it's taken me 2 weeks to get 100. I use it for networking not direct sales. I think Twitter is pretty useless for direct sales of a product compared to FB.

If I had your business I would just use FB to start with. There are Mums on Twitter but most of them are selling.

If you do want to use Twitter & FB, enroll in Hootsuite which will post on both sites. It also allows you to schedule tweets through the day.

Thanks, escape!

It justifies me spending time reading Hyperbole and a Half because I found and just posted today. Relevance is we are in fashion, so perhaps not completely relevant but still funny!

Also, mothers have time to Twitter - Mumsnetting takes longer and it's doing ok. :)