Has Twitter Helped My Business?
6
on June 15, 2009
I first jumped on the Twitter bandwagon back in January shortly before it went mainstream in the UK (which I think was 21/01/2009 when Stephen Fry appeared on Jonathans Ross’ first show after his suspension)
I was asked today if Twitter has helped my business. It’s a question I could answer with one word: yes. But I thought adding a bit more than 140 characters as to why and how might be better than a one-word answer. So let me count the ways:
Sales Leads
There are a reasonable number of sales of our standard accounting software for SMEs that I can trace back directly to Twitter. But there are also a handful of sales for our higher-value product for accountants too.
So much so that Michelle who is responsible for that side of the business has stopped saying “Less twittering, more working” and now says “Less working, more twittering”.
Closing Sales
Twitter has also helped to time the closing of sales. See my earlier post with the title How Twitter Can Help You Close Sales.
Blog Visitors
According to our logs, you’re probably reading this blog post because someone mentioned it on Twitter. Twitter is the #1 referrer of traffic to this blog. The blog works effectively to get us new customers – so more visitors are a Good Thing.
Crowdsourcing
When I’ve needed recommendations for software or services, a quick post on Twitter throws up a number of responses – saving lots of time independently researching what’s available.
Being Accessible
If you phone the office and ask for me, you have to first get past the gatekeeper. But on Twitter, anyone can reach you. Being easily got to via Twitter has led to a number of interesting opportunities and meeting great people I may not otherwise have met.
Sorting out our Vodafone issues
See my recent blog post dumping Vodafone. We had a number of problems that built up over the past year, all of which are now sorted. But I’m willing to bet that if it wasn’t for the fact that thousands of people, via Twitter, were reading my post then I’d still be owed closed to a thousand pounds by them and have a load of other issues.
So yes, it would be safe to say that Twitter has been a great help in continuing to build the business. But it also has its downsides!
6 Responses to Has Twitter Helped My Business?
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Hi Duane
Have to agree, twitter has firstly led me to finally make the jump to offering online bookkeeping as mentioned in your blog on closing a sale on Twitter. Last week I secured my first two clients as a direct result of my activity on Twitter.
Yesterday I had a called from the ACCA my professional body as they are running an article on ACCA members that use Twitter and during this discussion I attempted to articulate the benefits which in a nutshell I know see as, generating traffic to my website, another networking tool, a means of breaking up my working day and finally, in addition to a source of new client leads, as a tool to seek ways to add value to my clients.
Will
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I think we must start using twitter to start pushing our new product (being able to do produce year end accounts for £249.), if you have any tips on starting out on twitter, I would really appreciate it! thx
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Great Post Duane.
I’ve had so many experiences with Twitter been really helpful for the growth of our business….
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See what all the fuss is about
All true, I would say – it was quite nice in a way to watch your journey (so far) through twitter – I joined a week or two before, and was still just playing around with it back then.
One thing which I do think is going to be valuable in the future will be the ability to monior mentions of an upcoming SaaS offering – be they positive or negative – and to be reactive.
Not to mention, as you say – being accessible. Have met some great folks out there!