Here are 10 practical "how-to" tips for small businesses that want to grow their businesses using Twitter. Not every tip is right for every business. But these tips should get you thinking about how to use Twitter for your business. This is a presentation I gave at the Cool Twitter Conference in Cleveland on August 7, 2009.

1. 10 Practical Tips for
Using Twitter to Grow
a Small Business
Anita Campbell
Editor, Small Business Trends
http://smallbiztrends.com
Twitter: @smallbiztrends
Cool Twitter Conference
Cleveland, August 7, 2009

2. How to Use These Tips
The following are tips I’ve used or
seen others use with success for
business growth
Not a hard and fast formula
 Not every tip fits every situation – not
everything will be right for you
My goal: trigger ideas for you

3. Tip 1
Have a strategy – keep the end
in mind when tweeting for biz
Don’t become a Digital
Sharecropper
 Always make Twitter and other social
media secondary to your own
properties

5. Tip 2
Reinforce your brand
Use your brand name or URL
in your Twitter handle
Complete your profile/bio
Consider a Twitter landing
page

6. Tip 3
Become a trusted source of on-
point information
Stay on point 85% of the time
Sprinkle in personal info
Be findable by searchers – use
relevant “keywords” in your tweet

7. Tip 4
Drive traffic to your blog
Trend: 5% of my blog traffic is from
Twitter
One example: 24,000 visits within 4
days from one Twitter article; 10% of
traffic “stuck” with monthly uplift
 Be careful of Hootsuite or other tools
that “frame” pages

8. Tip 5
Be “retweetable” – every retweet
is a brand building opportunity
Trend right now is lots of retweeting
(repeating) of tweets
 Make short enough for others to
retweet without changing your words
~120 characters long

9. Tip 6
Monitor for use of keywords
Good way to find like-minded people
to follow
Gives you a reason to contact people,
although requires a light touch
Twitter Search and TwitterHawk help
monitor

10. Tip 7
Don’t forget to “Engage”
 Respond back to people – people
respond to people
Try to use complete thoughts in your
response – promotes wider
conversation – others jump in and
converse

11. Tip 8
Follow Back Generously
Following is act of courtesy; actively
builds “community” thru inclusiveness
Makes it easy for people to DM you
Most small biz don’t have big enough
brand to command large follower ##s
without going this extra step

12. Tip 9
Hold or Participate in TweetChats
A chat session using Twitter
Community of like-minded people in
Twitter
Small biz using effectively:
 #SBBUZZ
 #DIYMKT
 #SMBIZ

13. Tip 10
Use Tools for Efficiency
TweetBeep Alerts
Scheduled tweets: TweetLater &
Adjix
Be careful of automatic “add
followers” software

14. Bonus Tip
Be Authentic!
Distinguish yourself from the bots
on Twitter
Be YOU! There’s only one YOU

15. What else would you like
to know?

16. Thank you!
Anita Campbell
http://smallbiztrends.com
Twitter: @smallbiztrends