Do you use Twitter? Billing Manager is @freeinvoicing
Are you guys on Twitter? Twitter was the topic du jour in Silicon Valley a year or so ago, and since the mainstream media has picked it up this year, the service has been growing like crazy—in the last year they’ve grown to about 23 million users. I thought it was about time to revive the Billing Manager Twitter account—check us out at @freeinvoicing. A lot of freelancers and micro-businesses that use Billing Manager are also on Twitter, so I thought it might be useful to share some tips that I’ve learned from Intuit (@intuit) and my own use of Twitter (@willhambly). I’m sure we’ve got some experts out there so, I’d also like to open up a forum so we can share.
Here are some uses of Twitter that I’ve found useful:
- Keep in touch with local media via Twitter. A lot of local reporters and bloggers are on Twitter and are always looking for good stories. Connecting with bloggers can pay off if someone writes an article about your business. Here is an example of an independent frozen yogurt shop that got written up in a local paper.
- Use Twitter to connect with your customers and drive foot traffic. Because Twitter is all about real-time communication, you can use it to notify customers quickly about time-sensitive news. A great example is a bakery based in the UK that uses Twitter to let customers know when their bread is coming out of the oven. Check out @AlbionsOven.
- Promote your website with Twitter. If you regularly update your website or have a blog, you can use Twitter to drive traffic to your site and notify customers when you have new content or new products. A lot of news organizations use Twitter for this exact purpose. Some sites get a ton of traffic from Twitter and have even begun to rival search as a source of visits.
These applications of Twitter might not apply to your business, but they could be worth thinking about. If you guys want to share your Twitter “secret sauce,” go ahead and speak up in the comments, we’d love to hear from you.
