If I had a dollar for every time I heard "but how can Twitter help my business" OR "Twitter? I don't think it'll help me", I'd be a multimillionaire! Ok, so I exaggerate; but for sure I would be hundreds of dollars richer.
So why should you use Twitter?
Well, Twitter is free. Twitter is easy. Twitter is flexible. Twitter helps make quick contact and quick connections. But most of all, Twitter is the only tool that allows you to toot your horn as often as you want without the added expense of buying ad space.
A lot of people also say "but we get all our business through referrals". Ok. Well, how do referrals happen? People get to know you at events and lunches and dinners. Once they know you and once they've seen your work (directly or indirectly), they start referring people to you. Twitter then can become a GIANT referral system for you too. People network on Twitter pretty much the same way they do offline. They get to know you, ask questions, read other people's referrals, and check out your capabilities on your website. Once they start seeing you more and more, they find a measure of comfort in your company's legitimacy and capability. Tie the Twitter conversations to offline phone meetings, web conferences, and face to face meetings and now you've really started making the online work for you.
But, Twitter can be time-consuming. And if you don't have the resources, you may want to retain people like us who can cost-effectively manage your Twitter conversations. People are talking everywhere. Your customers and prospects are on Twitter talking about what they need, what frustrates them, what they can benefit from, etc. Not doing anything due to the lack of budget or a lack of resources is no longer optional.
Isn't it time you got on Twitter?