Cut the BullTwit
Friday, June 19th, 2009 by Phil JonesWhat Are the Business Benefits?
…asks Phil Jones, Sales and Marketing Director of technology brand Brother, in the second of two guest posts on PR Media Blog.

Here’s the $100 million question. I’ve put the key stuff down as bullet-points so you can work through it quickly:
For your business
1. Transparency. It’s a great way to build authenticity for your brand. Do you have brand values that you want to shine through? Then build a personality on Twitter. But don’t do it if you’ve nothing interesting to say. If you’re a small business, build trust with potential purchasers of your product and look for people in your locality using the search tool.
2. Traffic with no jams. It’s a great way to build traffic to your official website or blog. A well worded Tweet can entice people to click through to your website as part of your overall traffic-building strategy. But don’t cheat people or bend the truth or they won’t click on your link again; make it interesting. My blog traffic increased threefold after I started Twittering and readership has expanded to more than 20 countries, so it works.
3. Treasure and measure. Give something unique to your followers. Many of the well known global brands are already offering unique offers or pre-launches to their Twitter followers. This gives incredible ROI measurement when using unique codes.
4. Join the conversation. It’s a great way to understand what others are saying about your product or brand, and for people to share positive experiences with others. Buyer remorse is rife; the more support and reinforcement available, the better.
5. Shareware. I’m making this point twice (see below). The whole point of these platforms is to acquire and spread knowledge; if you build your brand/company reputation through a loyal following of people, they will help you spread your word.
For you in business
1. Grow up. You can increase your own personal learning and growth. There are some awesome and really clever people on Twitter who share their daily insights. Some of their Tweets are really thought-provoking. It’s free mind food.
2. Stay in touch.You can keep up with your key customers and contacts. A great reason to interrupt someone with something totally personalised: “I saw that you were… how interesting. Did you know?” You can see where people are and what they’re up to. Could you both be in the same place at the same time for an impromptu get together (called a Tweetup)?
3. I’m free. I’ve seen some really good consultants offer “free consulting” in their downtime between meetings. You can take advantage of this or give tasters of your goods or services to others. This is brilliant for smaller businesses - free advice.
4. Feed me. Ask questions of your followers to get instant feedback. Got a problem? You only need ask; people will give advice. Want to see some early feedback on a new product or service? Ask and people will reply. The community is building.
5. Shareware. The more you give, the more you will receive and the more your personal reputation will grow.
Phil Jones is Vice-President of Greater Manchester Chamber of Commerce and Sales & Marketing Director of technology brand Brother. He writes a daily blog at http://thecorporatebubble.blogspot.com/ and can be found on Twitter @Philjones40.









