Marketing Small Business With Twitter

Twitter. How can such an asinine word have such a colossal effect on society? How can 140 characters of text create more buzz than a multi-million dollar ad campaign? How can it be that Twitter is revolutionizing business?

According to our e-marketingclass text, “The mass market has been slowly disappearing since about 1992, as evidenced by the decline in prime-time television ratings, growth of cable television, and increasing number of special interest magazines. The internet put finality to this trend by extending it to its ultimate—a market size of one customer—and prompted marketers to create products and communication to small target groups.”

Reaching a niche customer segment has always played to the benefit of the small business and the changing marketing environment described above presents small businesses with an unprecedented opportunity.

Twitter gives small business owners the ability to effectively reach and engage customers and prospects in a way that was never before possible. Mom-and-Pop retailers, restaurants, and even street vendors have realized the benefits of Twitter and are seeing results. In a recent New York Times article, Marketing Small Business with Twitter, we are introduced to a small business owner who operates a crème brulee cart in San Francisco named Curtis Kimball. Through Twitter, Curtis has built up a local following of engaged, word-of-mouth customers totaling over 5400 subscribers. He sends out tweets with his location and the special flavor of the day as well as other various tweets about his personal life. As a result of the success that Curtis assigns solely to his Twitter campaigns, Curtis has quit his day job as a carpenter and focused all his effort on his small business.

To read more on this article and to find links about how Twitter is transforming small business, please visit my e-marketingclass blog http://buffalotom2010.blogspot.com/