How Small Businesses can use Twitter, part 1

Andy Sernovitz recently published a post on three ways small businesses can use Twitter. Twitter, as you might know, is a microbl ogging site. You sign up for an account, and you can post 140-character messages whenever you like. These messages are read by your 'followers'...people who 'opt in' to reading your 'tweets'. You can also read messages that others post; these people are people you are 'following'. The key then, is to get people to 'follow' you. One way to get people to follow you is follow other people (with the idea that they'll follow you back). I'm not convinced that Twitter is a great thing for small retailers, since it can take a lot of time and energy to craft messages, follow others' messages, and get followers. But Sernovitz is convinced. In fact, his first observation is that Twitter is the 'easiest' of social networks, and a Twitter account may be all some retailers need. Certainly paticipating in social media is important, and all of it can be time consuming. And being on Twitter AND on Facebook AND in your own online community is a lot. So take a look at Twitter and see if it might be right for you.

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