Twitter in Small Business: Growing a Business 140 characters at a Time. Created by Ben Prinster, Steven Reilly, Michael Spalding

About Twitter Twitter was created in 2006 by Odeo podcasting board members Jack Dorsey, Evan Williams, Biz Stone, and Noah Glass Created off the idea of using a SMS service to communicate with a small group. Twitter— “A short burst of inconsequential information” Not clear what it was

About Twitter Prototype first used internally with Odeo employees and release publically on July 15 th, By 2007, Twitter was experiencing 400,000 tweets a quarter. By 2008, that number grew to 100 million. Twitter continues to grow is currently boasting over 250 million active users

How Twitter Works Join Twitter (create username) Follow friends/businesses/celebrities Posts 140 characters or less Post text, videos, links, pictures, etc. Adjustable privacy settings Link with other social media accounts Facebook, Instagram, etc. Favorite, “Retweet”, and reply to Tweets

How Twitter and Business Coexist Allows businesses to send short messages that can link to anything on the web. (blogs, websites, documents, etc.) Promoted tweets can’t be sorted like Facebook ads Can allow for specific interaction with customers using hashtags Twitter can be used effectively for customer service and interaction

Business Marketing Examples A BBQ Company using twitter to give cooking tips to their followers These tips can be very useful but presented in a more casual manner than a company would usually use.

Connecting Consumer and Producer Twitter allows for more personal interaction between the business and their customers. Most prominent users of Twitter for Customer Service include Airliners. Allows for a response to complaints

Twitter and You Choose a budget Choose a target (can be based on gender, geography, language, interests and keywords, etc.) Choose a payment plan (clicks, impressions, follows etc.) Promote Organic tweets or tweets that are specifically written for promotion Start tweeting

Using Twitter to Stand Out Smaller hotels in large cities have used twitter to attract new customers by offering special discounts if you reserve a room via twitter. Provide not only content from your business but also fun and entertaining tweets to keep your followers interested.

Twitter Backfires Sometimes the high level of twitter users can interrupt a business’ goal of promotion. Mistakes may happen: Human error Inaccurate analysis of a target audience Inappropriate remark

Twitter Backfires Hashtag Nightmare McDonalds attempted to promote the quality of their food with the hashtag: #McDStories Employee Mistake An employee at Chrysler forgot to log out of their “work Twitter account”

Cost of Twitter The best part about Twitter for a small business is that there is no start-up cost. “Organic” tweets are always free To promote a tweet, Twitter has setup various resources Promote by tweet, trend, and account Twitter also allows businesses to target users. Gender, geography, interests, keyword, etc.

Cost of Twitter

Questions! Who tweets in MIS? When and why was Twitter created? What is an example that you have seen businesses use Twitter for good? When have you seen a business mess up on Twitter?