Twitter is essentially a micro-blog which allows you to send updates (tweets) to your followers. As a small business, Twitter is in fact an amazing tool that can expand your reach to existing and potential customers. It can allow you to stay in touch and connect with thousands and thousands of people instantly and drive your brand and communicate with customers in a way that you’ve never been able to before.

The open nature of Twitter means you can connect directly with customers in a manner you wouldn’t normally consider in traditional channels. In addition, if you follow the right people/services – Twitter can actually become a valuable resource; a steady stream of news, links, feedback and ideas for your business.

Here are @PixelVector’s top tips for small business on Twitter;

Don’t sell!
Don’t join Twitter and bombard the feed with constant tweets about your products. Your followers are just that – followers – and they will only follow you if you are providing them something worthwhile.

Be Patient
It takes time to build up a good following. Sure, you can go out and purchase a ‘list’ of followers, but these are usually of poor quality. You will build up a much stronger following by making interesting tweets and by promoting your Twitter account…

Promote your Twitter Account
Promote your Twitter account whenever possible; your e-mail footer, your website, your newsletter, even your business card. People probably don’t realise you are on Twitter so give them a nudge. There are even tools to automatically display your latest tweets on your website or blog and you can link your Twitter account to your LinkedIn or Facebook profile. Make sure everybody knows you have an account!

Branding
Ensure sure your Twitter page is in-line with your corporate branding – you should view your Twitter account as an extension of your marketing. Choose a good quality avatar/picture, select the colour scheme in-keeping with your company branding and upload a background image. Better still, have a professional design one for you.

Follow Follow Follow… and Interact
Follow people in your industry, your clients, your competition! Twitter isn’t just for celebs… Use Twitter as a tool to interact with people you wouldn’t normally interact with. Start by searching for people or companies you know. Use the tools on Twitter.com to import your address book contacts. Once you are following people, give them the courtesy of replying to their tweets. Interact with them, offer your opinion or advice – build up your reputation.

Embrace Feedback
Large companies are finding Twitter is a great tool for sourcing feedback from their customers – whether it is good or bad! Twitter is ‘level playing field’ in that everybody has a voice. Feedback, good or bad, can be used to improve your products or services, so embrace it. Interact with your customers if they have questions or criticisms, they will think better of you for it.

For more information about Twitter and your business, please get in touch!.

This is of course a little unfair. Too many companies have been stung by website designers in the past, with websites that are not designed to sell their company. When it comes to selling on-line it comes down to a no-nonsense approach. Your website should be designed to deliver information to a visitor so that they can make an informed decision about purchasing from you. So this requires your website to be well laid out, to the point, answer the most common questions and have a clean layout. Once your website is achieving these points you will start selling.

When planning your website, keep in mind the following points:

• Must be easy to navigate.
• Can they easily contact you?
• Don’t write to fill in space. Large pages of text can put off visitors.
• Attract attention by using headlines.
• Have you asked other people that are unfamiliar with your product, service or company to read your copy. If what you want to achieve is clear to them, fine, if not make it so.
• No one cares about your fancy offices or how long you have been in business, it’s all about what you can offer!

By solving these issues your website will begin to be an asset to your business.