Tweet success: How small business are using Twitter

When Twitter broke into the mainstream early in 2009, it was its ability to break news faster than traditional media - and the tendency for some users to talk about what they'd had for breakfast - that grabbed the headlines.

The format - sub-text-message-length 'updates', published on the internet and available for others to subscribe to - was so novel that it was frequently described with incomprehension, or outright derision.

But like other social media, such as blogging and Facebook, Twitter's value has been proven by its day-to-day use by millions of people. The early, sweeping questions of whether it was faddish or facile have given way to more interesting ones: how might this be useful to me, and to what I do?

These are questions that are being asked by a growing number of businesses on Twitter. Research by O2 in March suggested as many as 700,000 may have signed up in the UK alone, with thousands more arriving each week.

And while a trawl of neglected Twitter accounts reveals that some account holders - commercial and otherwise - have come and gone, it's increasingly clear that there are UK firms that have embraced the format as a valuable, low-cost way to communicate - and which are already seeing results.

The Hopton House experience

"Don't just tweet about your business all the time. Some of the American B&Bs do this and it's a big mistake."

Karen Thorne runs the five-star Hopton House B&B in Shropshire, as well as the Bed and Breakfast Academy, which offers training courses for people setting up their own B&B.

For Karen, tweeting from her laptop in the kitchen has already proven itself as a means of networking with other B&B owners, suppliers and existing customers, and even of reaching potential new guests.

"I've had a couple of guests stay and several enquiries as a result. What is great about Twitter is that it works on recommendation – I'm at the top of Google and [Microsoft's search engine] Bing for the keywords I want people to find me on for 'B&B Shropshire' etc, but what Twitter does is suggest Shropshire and my B&B to people who would never have considered coming here."

And, in a twist to the popular criticism that Twitter is boring when people bang on about what they've had for breakfast, Karen has made something of an art of describing the breakfasts she's cooking for her guests.

Take a brief look at the Hopton House Twitter feed, and it's soon clear that it isn't all sell-sell-sell.

"Why you would be interested in following someone who just tweets about their business, availability and special offers all day?", Karen asks. "It's like being at a networking event and having people thrust their business card at you. I'd much rather chat to people and get to know them as individuals."

The Hopton House stream has generated some unexpected opportunities for the business, and for others in Karen's network. Karen says that talking to a journalist via Twitter has resulted in three mentions of her business in the local paper over the past three months; she's met a photographer who specialises in B&Bs, who she now recommends to those attending her courses; and even her muffin recipe is getting attention, making it onto the website of a local flour mill after its staff got in touch through Twitter.

"The list goes on and on. It's organic – leads come out of nowhere – things that you would never normally think of doing."

Behind the blooms

Small retail businesses can be particularly time-poor, with little time for online marketing. But for some, Twitter provides a bite-size medium well-suited to a busy working day.

More Than Business first talked to Karen Watson at The Real Flower Company early in the spring, when she told us that social networking was a focus for her business in 2009.

"As we are a small company we have concentrated our efforts on PR in the last couple of years - we don't advertise as such, as the PR route is so much more cost effective for us," said Karen.

Karen users her Twitter stream to offer behind-the-scenes insights into running her floristry business, as well as personal observations and news from around the sector.

"Our blog has become a great way for us to keep our customers and the press up to date on what we're doing. I view Twitter as an extension of that service but with an added bonus as there is so much great, and easy to access, information in the land of Twitter."

Speaking to us again in June, Karen confirmed that Twitter was still a priority for marketing the business, and that she was starting to see customer enquiries through it.

"I've had several wedding and event enquiries, reconnected with some old business colleagues and had many other enquiries from different sources which have led to links on other websites. Hits to our site from Twitter are building each week and it's a great way to get the story out."

Karen also rates Twitter as a good tool to learn about the wider implications of digital media.

"I've learnt a lot about the right way to go about social networking and the information on there is excellent from real experts in social media... it's all about selectively following the right people though and building relationships through conversations with them."

Tweet Legal

Glasgow-based law firm and estate agency Inksters started using Twitter early this year, having initially been struck by how it could help get new property listings online quickly, and in front of active house-hunters.

In a short time, the business has generated six Twitter streams, looked after by several members of staff, all reflecting different aspects of the firm's activities and expertise.

As well as the main company account, there are two feeds that list properties (on Shetland, and elsewhere in Scotland), plus streams that follow developments in Crofting Law and Family Law. A little after the 'official' accounts, company founder Brian Inkster set up his own profile, for more personal thoughts and conversations.

Like many users of Twitter, Brian has found that Twittering as himself, rather than as an 'entity', has particular rewards.

His own account has already proved to be the busiest, despite coming after the other streams: "I've made more contacts through the personal Twitter stream than I have through the company's," he says.

And he finds that the growing network of legal Twitterers provides a fast way to get news from around the sector and the answers to specialist questions - a phenomenon that Inksters hopes to enhance by providing its own niche streams on croft and family law.

"On Twitter you can share expertise in a more condensed way," says Brian. "By following certain legal sources you can get information that you might not otherwise hear about for some time, if at all."

Although Twitter does not appear to have directly delivered new custom to Inksters yet, Brian says he fully expects to be using it in a year's time.

"You should use it as part of your overall marketing strategy - Twitter's not the be-all and end-all."

A format for the future?

Will businesses be using Twitter in five, ten or fifty years' time? Twitter is, famously, yet to settle on a business model to sustain its own ballooning popularity. It is also, notoriously, prone to crashing - and in an era of rapid innovation, who would bet that something cleverer or more reliable couldn't topple it within months?

But whatever the landscape when the dust settles, the rapid transfer of links, opinions and snippets of information - networked, public, searchable - is a phenomenon likely to prove bigger than its current manifestation. A better question may be: how long before it's impractical to do business without it?

More about using Twitter for businesses:

Business on Twitter - UK-based blog looking at the use of Twitter for businesses

Picture credit:Swallow nestlings image by Flickr user cyanocorax