Comments on: 5 ways Twitter can boost your small business (without ever typing “buy my stuff!”)

By: Martin - The Whirlpool Bath Shop

Martin - The Whirlpool Bath Shop — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 11:56:43 +0000

It’s on P.2 FWIW just thought worth a mention.

By: Dennis

Dennis — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 12:09:20 +0000

I use twitter daily and deepen into it more and more.

6. It’s a weblog for lazybones, who don’t want to write much.

By: Sue Bailey

Sue Bailey — Sun, 18 Jul 2010 19:36:14 +0000

Digby, I don’t think anyone’s said it is against their rules. Check the quote from Twitter Help in 4.1 – it’s explicitly *not* against their rules (though they do say that in a very roundabout way… probably deliberately!). Plus (as someone who creates rules about what is and isn’t spam…) I’d say that typing in single tweets promoting your business is VERY different from spewing out RSS feeds of every product you list on your site. I honestly would expect Twitter to start viewing that as spam very soon. Because, really, it is.

By: Digby

Digby — Sun, 18 Jul 2010 19:16:54 +0000

So how can major brands get away with “promoting their business or website” on twitter if its against their rules ?

By: Martin - The Whirlpool Bath Shop

Martin - The Whirlpool Bath Shop — Sun, 18 Jul 2010 17:11:14 +0000

Looks like it honestly though I can’t take twitter for business seriously, I have my personal ID which I love, my biz ID is purely for fiddling with google seo, ‘I’ think unless you are a major brand you are wasting your time telling twitter what your business is doing unless you are trading in a very high repeat order style business with a big mailing list, I fit into neither.

By: Sue Bailey

Sue Bailey — Sun, 18 Jul 2010 16:55:09 +0000

Hmm. So my post about how not to spam Twitter has turned into a comment thread about how to spam Twitter. That’ll teach me

By: Martin - The Whirlpool Bath Shop

Martin - The Whirlpool Bath Shop — Sun, 18 Jul 2010 16:27:10 +0000

Link in the blog post David, it’s called twitterfeed.

I’ve not been bothering with my twitter ID for biz much lately, spotted it on p.3 of google today, I am going to check weekly from today onwards and note any changes.

By: Martin - The Whirlpool Bath Shop

Martin - The Whirlpool Bath Shop — Sun, 18 Jul 2010 16:24:00 +0000

It’s only on the business page hopefully, it shouldn’t appear on the user ID wall, in theory.

By: David Brackin

David Brackin — Sun, 18 Jul 2010 16:21:18 +0000

Interesting. What are you using for a posting app?

By: Sue Bailey

Sue Bailey — Sun, 18 Jul 2010 16:17:12 +0000

Though less good for your Facebook friends ]:)

By: Martin - The Whirlpool Bath Shop

Martin - The Whirlpool Bath Shop — Sun, 18 Jul 2010 16:15:38 +0000

I’ve just set it up for a trial, I also noticed you can link it to Facebook pages which could be good for seo.

By: Sue Bailey

Sue Bailey — Sun, 18 Jul 2010 15:23:52 +0000

Sneaky, Stacy. And it looks like you might just get away with it. From the Twitter help pages:

We’re still thinking about the full spectrum of advertising on Twitter; in the meantime, other forms of advertising and promotion are allowed, but subject to the rules in this document. The following forms of advertising are not prohibited: * Promoting your own business or website.

But probably worth reviewing the rest of that page before you start: automated affiliate links aren't permitted, for example.

By: Robyn

Robyn — Sun, 18 Jul 2010 15:08:30 +0000

I never thought about having a dedicated item feed without followers for SEO purposes.

Hmmm – that’s an idea for my old @ChiqueLife ID now that I switched to @RobynVolker.

By: Martin - The Whirlpool Bath Shop

Martin - The Whirlpool Bath Shop — Sun, 18 Jul 2010 15:07:45 +0000

My cover is blown

I have a biz id on twitter but I don’t like using it for some reason, makes me feel cheap, however, if you post a couple of times a week it will mostly appear on p.1 of google which bumps somebody else onto p.2 so I will stick with it for business purposes.

By: Stacy

Stacy — Sun, 18 Jul 2010 14:59:11 +0000

There are two ways to look at Twitter. One as a social networking venue, in which case all of the above holds true.

However, having a Twitter account that does nothing but feed your items to Twitter is a great way to get exposure to search engines. Even if you have zero followers. I tested this the other day with a Twitter ID I’d just created and within 36 hours I was seeing traffic via Google and Twitter itself to those items, despite having no followers when I posted them (also within 36 hours I acquired about 20 spambot followers–I suppose I would be considered one as well).

By: edczestochowski

edczestochowski — Sun, 18 Jul 2010 14:07:39 +0000

I / We use it for a bit of all of these
and to let people know about whats happening in our current area .

at the moment am doing my bit to help get some support to help prevent a local special school from being sut down – Epinay must stay ( type into UTUBE )

Twitter is great because it is quick and easy — and is just a quick snap shot

thanks Eddie

By: Lynne

Lynne — Sun, 18 Jul 2010 13:59:15 +0000

I love my Twittering…

I have no idea how much it improves my business, but I hear lots of things first, people ask about what I am doing as I interact, and it is not possible to know how many other people you are being recommended to. Viral marketing can be subtle and secret.

One thing to remember I believe is that EVERYONE that you talk to on Twitter is a potential (or possibly past) customer. So NO bitching about customers or you will surely regret it..

By: Sue Bailey

Sue Bailey — Sun, 18 Jul 2010 13:10:22 +0000

Oh, give me str…. oops

By: Martin - The Whirlpool Bath Shop

Martin - The Whirlpool Bath Shop — Sun, 18 Jul 2010 12:38:28 +0000

Twitter? never heard of it.