Business on Twitter Because Twitter’s not just for twits ;)

A guest blog from Barry James of Receipt Angel

Twitter has been a bit of a revelation to me over the last couple of months or so. Of course I’ve been aware of it for a year or two – but it didn’t grab me straight away. In fact I was more than a little dubious about the whole ‘Social Network’ thing. Especially why it would work for small businesses – and how.

It’s not easy to get into either – well it wasn’t for me and several other people I know anyhow. My first attempt was abortive, and I’m hardly alone. It was like being in a room with lots of chatter, but no one listening. Soon got fed up of that.

So with the first stage being a bit daunting – until you get some followers and a dialogue going – how come it’s become the phenomenon it has? What is the magic – and why is it worth persevering with?

Yes you get to meet some great people (or peeps as the lingo goes) but that’s not really enough for all the time and effort – is it? Well for some it is, and for them the story unfolds naturally from there.

For the rest of us time-poor busy people it’s a big investment. It does take time – pretty much every day. Maybe only a little, but it does add up. (On the other hand it’s really ‘water cooler time’ – unwinding and shooting the breeze between tasks. Which you probably do on the phone or Skype etc anyway). Combating isolation is important for home and virtual businesses. This kills ‘two birds with one stone’.

The Real Payoff
But what’s the real payoff? In a word: relationships. Not just friends – hopefully that too – but business relationships. I’ve probably formed more and stronger business relationships in the last couple of months than in the previous twenty.

That’s partly because I’m an innovator and inventor and love to be around early adopters and people like me – but it’s clearly more than that – because it works for many different kinds of people and businesses.

I believe the answer lies in two things – crucial changes to business and society. Marketing, and the way we all perceive, evaluate and buy products and services. Plus the annihilation of geography.

Brands use psychology to create a bond with customers and potential customers – because we all want to deal with people (and products etc) we know and like. This tends to favour big corporates with major marketing budgets who can afford TV campaigns, celebrity endorsements and ‘brand awareness’ campaigns on-line and elsewhere. Smaller and start-up companies just can’t compete.

Going local.
Getting out and networking is one approach. People get to know you – your brand and your face – and trust you. They form a relationship and so are likely to favour you when they need someone with your skills, service or product.

Going Global.
But local has inbuilt limitation – perhaps too obvious to mention. On-line on the other hand makes small niches huge – which has become known as the ‘long-tail’ effect. If you have a specialist skill, service or product then the number of potential buyers locally with be much smaller than globally (whether global in this instances is the UK, the English speaking world or worldwide).

Although even if your service is not all that niche so long as it can be delivered remotely – with little or no detrement – via the Internet – then your reachable market suddely expands by a factor of a hundred, a thousand, or maybe much more. The number of accountancy practices now switching from local to on-line is a good example.

Reachable?
Reachable is the key. How do you find lots of the people with an interest in what you have? How do you reach out to them – without a huge budget (or any at all)? How do you get to know them – and their needs, so that you can adapt grow and help them? How do you get to know them in a way that they also get to know you?

Powerful
Anyone who’s used Twitter (and other social networks) will know that this is exactly what it does. It brings together people who are interested in similar subjects, using self-selection in a very powerful way, and enables them to communicate over coffee. Puts them in touch at exactly the time when they are easing back from the day or the task and are interested enough to pay attention to what you have to say.

The power of TV adverts is diminishing – partly because increasingly we can and do skip them. They are telling us stuff we probably don’t want to know for their own benefit. They worked so well for so long because they engaged our minds in the right state – when we were relaxing and receptive.

Google has prospered by showing only stuff that is relevant (to our search) and therefore that we are likely to be interested in, in a non-invasive way. They’ve done pretty well!

Double the power?
Twitter has the power to combine those who things – when you know how to use it. Non-invasive is very important when you are trying to generate goodwill and build a relationship. In times gone by that might have been called ‘respect’. TwitSpammer who don’t respect their audience soon find that self-selection works against them.

Twitter offers the means to find, and connect with, large numbers of people who are interested in what you have to offer – in a way they choose and like, at a time of their choosing (and when they have the interest and attention to spare). That’s powerful.

It also reverses the rules – in ways that some companies find hard to understand. Generosity is at a premium. Transparency works better than more traditional ‘closed’ business approaches. But these are subjects for further exploration in what I guess might become a serise?

Meanwhile for those who understand the unwritten rules the power is there – and anyone can play, from Stephen Fry( @stephenfry of course ) – bless his cotton socks (now there’s a man who knows how to respect his audience, and is loved for it) – to you and I.

Barry E James BSc(Hons)
Barry holds an degree in Psychology and is an Internet pioneer and serial entrepreneur (of far too may years standing) currently launching ReceiptAngel.co.uk. He tweets as @ReceiptAngel

(C) Copyright Barry E James, Feb 2010

Tags: barry james, guest blog, guest post, receipt angel

This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 17th, 2010 at 7:18 am and is filed under Guest Blogs. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.