A lot of businesses are getting themselves on the social networking bandwagon. Even we have a Facebook page. The problem with social networking is that it can get pretty time consuming. It’s like having another web page with its own set of content that needs to be updated frequently. Sure, it serves a purpose, and getting an additional web presence for free is a pretty good deal.
There is, however, the business owner’s need to get the most return for the smallest expenditure of resources.
Have a look at the minimalist social networking app: Twitter. So bare-bones that status updates are limited to 140 characters, twitter nonetheless offers a great deal of user-generated leverage. A twitter profile consists of the following: your user name, your actual name or business name (should you choose to publish it), your geographic location (be as vague or specific as you like), and your website address. The rest of the page is devoted entirely to content. You don’t need to include your age, religion, political alignments, or blood type. Just rich, hearty content. Twitter content is designed to be added from anywhere. Not just from any computer, but even from mobile SMS text messages, hence the 140 character limit.
So let’s say you own some type of business where people like to congregate: a diner for example. A twitter user (let’s call him “Dale”) goes there to lounge around for a little while and decides to tell everyone what great coffee you have. He may tweet “Having coffee at the Double R Diner – darn good cherry pie, too.” Promoting your business online for free, does it get any better? Yes, it does. Because you could have a twitter profile with the user name “DoubleR,” in which case Dale doesn’t tweet “Having coffee at the Double R …”
Instead he tweets “Having coffee at @DoubleR – darn good cherry pie, too.” The “@DoubleR” tells twitter that Dale has made a tweet about another twitter user, and that “@DoubleR” will show up as a link to your profile where people can see the link to your website as well as all the other complimentary tweets from other users. And you don’t necessarily have to tweet yourself (although it’s a lot more fun for other people if you do). All you need to do is spend about four minutes and six seconds to go to Twitter and set up an account, then let people know you have it.
