Should My Ecommerce Business Be On Twitter?

I’ve spent a lot of time working with Twitter on a personal and professional level and there are clear benefits to using them in the Ecommerce arena. Results obviously vary depending on the particular niche you’re in, but by and large, I do believe Twitter is a great means of promoting products and services.

Twitter is a relatively recent phenomenon, a community composed of Tweets a maximum of 140 characters long. It’s great for quick statements and acts a lot like an Instant Messenger and Chat Room had a baby. You see what you want to see by filtering out the Tweets between those you’re following, and other tweets that fit certain search parameters. Twitter is a little tough to get used to at first, but the moment you see the first benefit, you’re likely going to be hooked for a long time to come.

But what does it mean for business? There’s always news about some CEO with a Twitter account who gives us a little more than he bargained for, inevitably getting into an embarassing situation or other trouble of some kind. Twitter probably isn’t so great for the CEO of your company to wax philosophical about whatever they want. They don’t generally understand the technology or the repercussions a single Tweet can have and thus they should be locked out of the Tweet room forever. That being said, some CEO’s have broken the mold. But not many.

Local businesses with an online presence stand to gain quite a bit from a well-executed Twitter presence. Restaurants and bars can tweet daily specials, and yearly events or other points of pride which can result in quite a following. URL shorteners like bit.ly can also track how many clicks your links have received so you can see exactly how effective your tweets are, and how loyal your followers are.

Other businesses such as software companies in particular have a unique opportunity to be there for their customers, so Twitter can act like a point of contact for sales or technical support. Additionally, it is a great place to make announcements about new or updated products, company achievements, specials and more.

You’ll only get out of Twitter what you put into it, and since it’s free to use, we’re talking about your time and effort. If you’re willing to put the time in or have an employee who doesn’t make your company look stupid via inappropriate tweets, Twitter can absolutely increase traffic to your website, strengthen the rapport between your support staff and your customers, and open up new opportunities for business. Give it a chance and see what it can do for you!