Twitter and My Business

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Twitter and my Business

by Sian Phillips on January 29th, 2010 | Comments

(6 votes, average: 4.50 out of 5)

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Just over a year ago our SEO consultant advised us to sign up to Twitter. I’d never heard of Twitter and thought what a silly name. But I signed up anyway.

I created the account as @whatswhat_sian so that every time I tweet someone sees the business name. My bio explained the business and gave a link to Whatswhat too.

I didn’t know a soul on Twitter but as it was for the business I looked through names in Ireland. So I followed them and also lots of their followers as I reckoned they’d mostly be based in Ireland. The majority followed me back and then it grew from there.

From the start I just chatted. I can’t remember those conversations now but they developed and people asked me about Whatswhat – which was perfect as I could answer and lots would see it.

Twitter and other online social media sites suit me perfectly. All my work is done via my laptop so it is almost always on. I can multitask well so I can be on hold on the telephone, or doing admin and be tweeting at the same time. Most importantly I am no good at the normal networking in a group of people. Luckily my business partner, Barbara Gordon, could be called the Queen of Networking so she takes care of that side of the business and I can do the online stuff.

Over the past year we have had on average 3 signups to the directory a week with the referrer as Twitter. They are free listings. We have had several companies take advantage of our €5 a month premium listings and have sold a few Top Ten spots too – all via seeing me on Twitter.

Sometimes I see someone on Twitter looking for a service and I am normally able to give them a link to a list on the directory or suggest a business listed with us. I have also received advice on Twitter regarding SEO, IT support, broadband connections, marketing, Facebook, and lots more.

We have found a sales person via Twitter and we are still on the look out for more plus I have made contact with someone who could be very important for our business through Twitter. Unfortunately I cannot say more about that at the moment.

Meanwhile I now have over 2,200 followers so they have all seen the name Whatswhat and hopefully will think to use the directory to find a company or service in Ireland or possibly sign up with us.

I’d highly recommend Twitter for your business. There is excellent advice in Niall Devitts blog – 50 Tips to get you started on Twitter for Business

Well that’s how Twitter has helped Whatswhat.ie – has it helped your business too?

(6 votes, average: 4.50 out of 5)

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Category: Social media Marketing

Tags: business, seo, twitter

The Author: Sian Phillips

Financial Director of Whatswhat.ie - Online Business Directory for Ireland. Certified accountant with a sales background. Whatswhat.ie was established 8 years ago and we now have over 67,500 companies listed. http://www.whatswhat.ie

Add Your Comment

mayahanley

Great post Sian. Don't know how I missed the link in your other blog post! Reading too fast as usual :). I am real believer in the power of Twitter for business but really feel that the creation of friendly relationships is the way to make it successful. The people who only tweet about their business don't have the success because people get turned off by being 'sold' all the time. In my experience, much more happens when you are friendly and natural and build relationships in much the same way as you would if you met people in person. You have definitely done this successfully and I wish you all the best with the growth of your business.

Niall Devitt

Hi Sian, what a wonderfully simple but effective post on Twitter. A key point for me is that you had some objectives at the start and therefore were able to measure your success. Can I also add that one of the reasons I believe you have been successful so far is that you generous on there, I have experienced this many times first hand. Thank you for the mention. Cheers, Niall

Angela_Carr

Thanks Sian!

A great no-nonsense post about the value of Twitter for business - I'll definitely be sending the naysayers in your direction. To me, it's just so obvious that the more places you are talking about your business, the better the results will be. Picking up on Fred's point about sceptics questioning the time input - any business marketing requires time and effort because there are no quick fixes when it comes to building good working relationships.

My own experiences of Twitter have been similarly positive - an early tweet was picked up by Channel 4 Homes and included on their blog, my own blog was put forward as a great example of how architects can engage with the public in a presentation by a Twitter contact to the Royal Institute of British Architects in London, at their annual Stakeholders forum, and is about to be featured in a blogging workshop at the Architect's Journal / Construction News conference next week, hosted by another Twitter contact.

In addition to promotion for living:room, Twitter has helped me create an on-line network of people who I converse with regularly and who, in turn become advocates for the business - re-tweeting my posts and featuring the business in their own blogs or magazines they write for, expanding the reach of the business.

And, as previously mentioned, the real beauty of Twitter is that those conversations are there for all to see - you might shake a dozen hands and pass out a dozen business cards at a face-to-face networking event but your Twitter profile and other social media outlets are working for your business 24/7.

sianphillips

Thank you for all the great comments and feedback. Sabina - it was simple for us to track the results as when a company adds to Whatswhat there is a "Where did you hear about us" box so we'd know they came from Twitter and that stays on their listing. Obviously I can keep a record of all the sales we've made via Twitter easily too as I also do the accounts. But that's simple because of the business I'm in. What I cannot record is the extra traffic it will have brought to our directory as we are constantly marketing in many ways so cannot pinpoint who has seen us where if all they are doing is using the directory to look for a service. I do know that on our analytics Twitter is in the top ten referrers for links in however. All in all I think Twitter has done Whatswhat the world of good.

Sabina

Great post! What I found of great benefit in your account is the mention that you have measured the activity and know exactly how many and which clients had Twitter as the referrer. To say that's important, would be an understatement! This is something that's possibly lacking in some companies using this channel, but the question is - if it's not evaluated and measured, how will I know what works and what doesn't?

barneyausten

Great to see some real feedback on the usefulness of social media tools in business. For me, twitter has brought me in some beta testers for the product and lots of questions on what we are doing. It has helped start to raise the profile of the business pre-launch as well so we have a head start!

derbhiledromey

An imformative, jargon free post. May return to investing in my Twitter account as a result of your experience.

Best wishes,

Derbhile

LewisEvans

For me, the key to its usefulness is the vast range of associated programmes that facilitate organising and using the information that Twitter generates in focused ways.

fred

Short and sweet Sian, well done! For anyone reading this great testimonial on Twitter for business, here's what I think it's crucial "...it was perfect as I could answer and lots would see it ". That's a special benefit that Twitter provide, but many using the tool are not aware of it yet.. The fact that you know that those 2200 followers have Whatswhat present in their mind while you have conversations with other people is fabulous!
Also, the number one question from people getting into it is: "How much time will this take me?". I'm not going to say little or no time, but clearly, once you figure it out, you can tweet, WHILE you do other activities.
Thanks for sharing Sian.

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