There’s More to Twitter Than Tweeting Your Next Task

Last week, at a party, I mentioned that Twitter has been invaluable to my business.  A few of my friends said (as they rolled their eyes) that it doesn’t matter if someone’s on their way to the gym or late to get a haircut.

They don’t get it. Others don’t either, unless they use Twitter often.

Twitter isn’t just about letting others know what you’re doing through your tweets. The truth is that unless you’re a major celebrity, not everyone cares where you’re going or where you’ve been.

There are a few ways that you can use Twitter to help you grow your business including:

Drawing traffic to your blog. When you update your blog (which you should do several times a week), tweet your latest blog headline and a (shortened) link. The better the headline, the faster your followers will flock to your site.

Sharing articles that may interest your followers. Tweet about articles, blog posts or even photos that will help your followers. I scan about 150 articles a day to find the right ones to share with my followers. If my followers like my tweets, they’ll retweet them, which introduces me to their followers.

Establishing you as the go-to expert. When a writer, reporter or producer is looking for an expert, they may use TweetDeck, HootSuite,  Seesmic, or Twitter Search to find the right person to interview. The same goes for prospective clients looking for a product or service. Twitter is a viable search engine for up-to-the-minute events. While the tweets you find may not be from major news outlets, the links they provide may come from sources you recognize.  This Open Forum article, “Search Marketing, Twitter-Style” gives a good description of how well Twitter works as a search engine.

Growing your online presence. If you’re serious about growing your business, you have to have a Web presence.  Do an Internet search of your name and your company name and if you don’t find yourself, you need to ramp up your online efforts.  Twitter is a good way to do that.

Making new business contacts. I’ve been fortunate to meet some incredible business owners through Twitter including @daveyank, @RightGirl (she’s hilarious) and @TachelleDaniels. We’ve worked on projects together, provided guest posts or interviews for one another’s sites, and found ways to help each other out.

Twitter can help you grow your business if you take advantage of all it has to offer. As for letting others know that you’re on your way to buy frozen yogurt, you may want to open a personal account for that.