Last week, 3M reported better than expected earnings for Q2 2009.  CNBC analysts commented that, in large part, this better than expected report was due to increased sales of 3M respirator masks bought by people afraid of the swine flu epidemic.  Masks to protect against this epidemic are on back-order through 2009, 3M CEO George Buckley said.

These respirator masks were not originally designed and manufactured to protect against this relatively recent outbreak.  However, 3M listened to consumers, realized a new potential use, and creatively repurposed the masks without having to sink massive research and development funds, missing the demand all together.

What service or product does your firm offer that could be repurposed?

What services could serve a different market without your company straying from its core competencies?

If you previously designed primarily for home builders, what services did you offer them and what other segments of the market could benefit from those services?

Most importantly, what is your market telling you about the use of your products or services? Children are best at showing alternate purposes for products.  Very few actually play with their toys as intended.

Duct tape was first used to keep ammunition cases free of moisture in World War II.  Need I say more about its current uses?

Tacky Prom (pun intended)

For plumbers on, and off, the job

Stain Protection

Babysitting

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?