Small Businesses: Can You Afford to Ignore Twitter?

Three in four adults have a Facebook page—that's right, your Mom probably wants to be your friend! And roughly one-third of small businesses are on Facebook, according to InformationWeek.

But what about Twitter?
Reports differ—InformationWeek cites between 20% and 25% of small businesses are on Twitter, with other outlets, like eMarketer suggesting less. InformationWeek suggests this is because Twitter is better suited to individuals than businesses, noting that small businesses don't often have well-known personalities that customers can seek out on Twitter.

Regardless of what businesses are on Twitter, one fact remains—there are over 150 million users on Twitter, with over 300,000 new users joining daily. Is that a universe you want to ignore? Likely not.

So…what's a small business to do? Create a presence for your company and attempt to grow a following? Or task your
key employees with doing so as individuals, and relating their presence to your brand?

Both.

Ask yourself, as a purveyor of services, how often you hire the company… and how often you hire the people that work for the company, who make it what it is, what is stands for. Those people need a presence. A voice. If you sell a product instead of a service, your greatest brand ambassadors are your employees who believe in that product—shouldn't their friends and their friends' friends hear about that?

Ultimately, social media is like any other business initiative—you, as the business owner must define what is right for YOUR company, RIGHT now. To start, look to your senior internal brand ambassadors for support and content, and define a strategy from there. There is no silver bullet—but you can't win if you don't play.