TheMiddleShelf.com

Large companies such as McDonald’s and IBM often boast marketing budgets comparable to a third world country’s gross domestic product.  So how’s a small business owner to compete?

The answer is short:  in 140 characters or less.

Well, who hasn’t heard of Twitter, a free micro-blogging service that lets users share “tweets” — brief text messages less than 140 characters long that subscribers or “followers” can read and redistribute?  Twitter’s popularity is booming.  With about 75 million users who send more than 50 million instant instant updates a day via computer or mobile phone, it’s a classic case study in frequency and reach.

No surprise, then, that industry leaders such as Starbucks (@Starbucks), Dell (@DellOutlet), and Zappos (@Zappos) all use Twitter to drive direct sales, offer promotional discounts,  and engage shoppers with their brand.  But a legion of small businesses are also using it to turbo-charge their business.  One question I get asked is “what do I tweet about to reach my existing and/or potential customers?”  Here are some ideas:

1. Product reviews, giveaways and sales promotions.  Tweet sales promotions (“all scarves 50 percent off tomorrow”), exclusive giveaways (“free tacos for the next five customers to tweet us back”) and advertising efforts (“come experience our state-of-the-art, eco-friendly furniture showroom”).
2. Links to your electronic newsletter and blog.  Remember to tweet every time you have a new blog post.
3. Use Twitter as a customer-service tool.  Listen to who is mentioning your name via Twitter search or a Twitter application like Tweetdeck.  Be prepared to respond via Twitter, where you ethically can, to what what is being said about you and the relevant subjects you’re monitoring on Twitter Search.

Granted, what you take away from the service depends on what you put into it.  Nor is return on investment always easily quantifiable, say insiders, citing the added danger of spending so much time experimenting with the service that you overlook other, more potentially lucrative business opportunities.

Still, because it requires no actual upfront cash outlay or risk beyond a time investment, Twitter should be an essential part of any modern small business’s social media strategy.

Have some ideas on how Twitter could be used by small business owners to connect with customers? Share them in a comment or send me (@M_Helm) a tweet.