Practical Business Guidance from David M. Brown, MD
Put Your Business on Twitter Today
If your Business currently has no Internet Presence, I’m a firm believer in getting started right away, getting started by doing something yourself, and getting started with something very simple to do. You may not want to invest a lot of time getting your business online. Most business owners don’t, but you also probably don’t want to spend a lot of money developing your web presence. If you do, I’d be happy to accept your business, but I am suggesting that you learn a few of the basics about getting your business online. It won’t require much investment of time and the knowledge you gain will serve you well as you develop a more robust online presence.
I like to start with Twitter because there’s no simpler way to get started. First, you’ll need to type in www.Twitter.com into your address bar and press enter or do a search for Twitter in a search engine like Google and click on the link. What you will see on the Twitter main page will be “twitter” on the left side with their catchphrase underneath “Discover what’s happening right now, anywhere in the world”. We are going to ignore that phrase for now, because that is not what we are using Twitter for at this time. That will play a role in a later lesson. On the right side of the page, near the top, it says “New to Twitter?” and underneath that is a big Orange button that says “Get started now”. Click on the Orange button to get started.
The next page you see has “Join the Conversation” written at the top and asks you to enter your “Full name” first and then your “Username”. Keep in mind that you want people to be able to find you easily on Twitter and that Twitter searches can detect both the “Full name” and the “Username”. The ‘username’ will become part of your Twitter website address and it will be used by others on Twitter to contact you. So you want your username to be meaningful for your business and as short as is practical for your business. If your business has a long name, I suggest using that long name as your “Full name” and using a shorter, preferably catchy name as your ‘Username’. Twitter sets strict limits on the length of everything, which can be frustrating at times, but it is also a major reason why Twitter is so popular because posts are always brief.
The name fields on Twitter are limited to 20 characters and I suggest that your username be half that long or 12 characters maximum. This will facilitate communication with other businesses and individuals. Let’s say your business name is “Harbor Heating & Air Conditioning” which is a business name that is too long for Twitter. If you advertise as “Harbor Heating” or “Harbor HVAC”, you could use either of those as your “Full name”, but if you advertised as “Harbor Air Conditioning”, it’s too long & can’t be used in its entirety, but “Harbor Heating & AC” is 19 characters and can be used as your “Full name” if it’s not already taken by someone. Consider your ‘username’ very carefully. You want it short & easy for people to type to respond to you. Unlike your ‘full name’, your ‘username’ cannot contain any spaces, so you could use “HarborHVAC” as your username, but not “Harbor HVAC” because once you enter a space in a username, anything that occurs after that is ignored, so it is not part of the ‘username’. Some people get around this by entering an underscore to separate 2 words or terms, e.g., “Harbor_HVAC”, but I am not a fan of this practice because it is more cumbersome for people to type and to remember. You could also use “HarborAC” as your username or “HarborHeat”, which are easy to remember and not too long.
Finish by entering a password that you will remember and your primary e-mail address so Twitter can communicate with you. You will be sent an e-mail which asks you to confirm that you are opening a Twitter account. If you already have a website or a blog for your business, you would list that address (URL) under “Web” and then write a description of your business in 160 characters or fewer. That’s about 20-25 words. That’s not very many, so make them count. In the next post we will discuss what you will be doing with your newly-formed Twitter account.
Your Web Presence is Critical to Your Business
Are you a business owner who is looking to have a more effective online presence? Maybe you need your first website or you want to be involved in all the Social Media online to help grow your business or you need to make the website(s) you have more effective at reaching new customers. No business owner wants to be left behind and technology is evolving rapidly. It’s easy to get confused and/or overwhelmed by all the choices out there for websites, Facebook pages, Twitter pages, blogs, Squidoo pages, Linked-In pages, etc. It’s easy to understand why some business owners just throw up their hands and claim that figuring out the Internet is just too complicated to bother with. But let me reassure you that all these choices of different ways to effectively market your business online have really made it easier and simpler for you to get started.
If you don’t currently have a blog or another website and don’t at least have a page on Twitter and a Fan page on Facebook, then you are missing out on a golden opportunity to serve your customers better and gain a whole new customer base that you would probably never get if you weren’t online. I’m constantly surprised by the number of brick-and-mortar businesses who do not have ANY Web presence at all. Many business owners still don’t understand how important their online presence is for their customers to find them, get to know them and what they have to offer, and begin to really like and trust them, so they will think about that business more and be more apt to visit it when they need what the business is selling.
Many customers will do at least some of their shopping online and all customers or clients who use the internet (let’s face it, that’s a large majority of the potential customer base for most businesses) WILL DO RESEARCH ONLINE BEFORE THEY MAKE A PURCHASE. The Internet is all about finding the right information: finding what you need when you need it. If your business is not online telling all your potential customers what you have to offer them and why your products and/or services are superior to your competitors, then you are losing an incredible amount of business to your competitors who have realized the importance of having a significant online presence. There are many ways to grow your business online. It’s not all about new customers, although that is a huge benefit of being visible to those people who are looking for you. It’s also about customer service and customer education and customer retention, leading to more repeat business.
There are so many things that any business can do online that will lead to significant growth for that business. You may need some help with Getting your business online and maximizing the growth opportunities there. We can help you with any challenge that you may encounter. I will be discussing many aspects of growing your business by increasing your online presence over the coming weeks. If you want to get on my mailing list, you can receive more of the specifics of developing your online presence via emails sent directly to you. If you want more growth in your business now, during what has been rather tough economic times, just enter your name and email address in the box to the right, and you will be well on your way to much greater success in your business.