Small Business Uses for Twitter

Twitter launched in July 2006 and is fast becoming the most popular microblogging platform on the web… if you’re not all set. In February 2009, Twitter reached 8 billion users. Quantcast reports that demographically, users are predominantly in the United States, Caucasian, ages 18-49, college graduates, and no children.

• 53% women
• 47% male
• 47% 18 – 34 years
• 31% 35 – 49 years
• 82% Caucasian
• 74% No children
• 46% University
• 17% graduate school

Twitter is a highly adaptable tool that can be used for a multitude of purposes. People send status updates, also known as “tweets” for fun, business, information, news, and emergencies. You might think that 140 characters limits what can be distributed, but users can still share articles, images, and videos by using shortened URL links.

Twitter not only helps you connect with millions of people, but it’s also a phenomenal research tool. Companies and organizations collectively pay millions of dollars for case studies, reports, white papers, think tanks, and focus groups in the hope of gaining business-building insights in their industry and target market. Small businesses that can’t afford to spend their marketing dollars on expensive reports have a few alternatives, and Twitter is one of them.

Twitter is a free resource that can be used to supplement your existing research efforts. Where market research and case studies can take months and years to come to fruition, Twitter is a real-time data source. When think tanks and focus groups are constrained by size, location, and time constraints, Twitter is global and always-on.

In addition to using Twitter as a communication and information sharing utility, it is a very useful and highly effective research apparatus that can be applied to various areas of study with minimal cost. With just a few useful tools, there are hundreds of them, Twitter can be used to research geographically, specific demographics, keywords, industries, brands, or businesses.

Twitter Tools for Small Businesses

Brand management and keyword research
search.twitter.com
TweetBeep.com

Geographic and target market research
twellow.com
CloseTweets.com

Top Twitter Influencers
Twitter.Grader.com
twitpwr.com

Twitter management
tweetdeck.com
twhirl.org