As small companies, our most limited resource is our time.  Therefore, it is not surprising that the question arises, “Why should my business be on Twitter?”

1.  It’s one of the least expensive ways to perform research and development. Once you have even a few hundred followers, you have a great sample size to extend business questions.  Wondering whether people would be interested in a certain new service?  Put it out to the Twitterverse.  The worst thing that can happen is that no one answers.  The best thing that can happen is that you receive several responses and have valuable information about how to proceed.  This could save you a tremendous amount of time and money.

2.  Someone may be talking about you. Whether it be positive or negative, someone on Twitter may be talking about your business.  How will you respond if you are not there to listen?  I recently tweeted that a restaurant I frequent in Charlottesville always has terrible service.  This received a huge response from my Charlottesville following (15+ tweets back and forth about the pros and cons of the restaurant).  Crickets from the restaurant (even though they are on Twitter- this actually makes the silence worse).  This could have been a perfect opportunity for the restaurant to make happy customers.  [See a video here about how P.F. Chang's is on the cutting edge of using Twitter to make customers happy].

3.  You are able to show your company’s true personality. By showing your true personality, you will attract more of  your ideal clients.

4.  You never know who you are going to meet. Just like you can’t expect your phone to ring if you never leave the house and network, Twitter is an opportunity to network and engage with people on an even broader scale.  I have not only met people across the world (we seem to click well with Toronto twitterers for some reason) but have also met some great people in our area who I may never have met otherwise.  This has translated to real life connections and business referrals.

5.  Become a better educated businessperson. Twitter is full of tweets with resources for business.  It is also a great place to pose a question like, “Are there less expensive alternatives to Photoshop?”  Then just wait for your following to chime in on its experiences and knowledge.

This would not be a complete blog post if I did not mention that I posed this question to my Twitter following and received the following responses.

Question:

Received these answers from some of my great followers:

If your business is already on Twitter, what are some of your success stories?  What have you found to be the greatest benefit of Twitter?

Author: Alexandra Gibson

Alexandra is the CEO of Gibson Design Management and Managing Partner of interior design firm, Gibson Design Group. When she's not busy trying to build an empire, you can find Alexandra riding a horse, giving back to the community, playing with her Scottie, McCord, or drinking a martini (preferably not all four at once).

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Tags: Business Education, Customer Relations, Marketing, Networking, Personality, PF Chang's, Research and Development, Social Media, Twitter