137 Small Business Twitter Tips


Small business Twitter tipsIn May of 2009 we asked you, our loyal readers, to give us your best Twitter tips.

Over the course of several weeks, we accepted your tips via email, Twitter and in comments to the original post.  We asked readers to simply answer one of the following 6 questions:

  • Getting Started: How would you suggest other small businesses get started on Twitter?
  • Smart Marketing: What’s the right way (or wrong way) to promote your business on Twitter?
  • Observing Etiquette: What is your #1 Twitter etiquette tip for small business owners?
  • Spreading Your Message: What is your best tip for getting re-tweeted?
  • Time Management: How do you manage your time on Twitter?
  • Advanced Strategies: What is your best kept secret (something not widely known) for using Twitter in business?

To all of the Small Business Trends readers, thank you very much for participating.  We gathered a whopping 137 small business Twitter tips!

All of the tips have been compiled into one downloadable document which is available to you now.

Feel free to share this PDF document, link to it or post it on your blog or website, print out copies and share with your staff – the document is yours to use and share. I invite you to use it to the fullest.

Download the PDF containing all of the free tips:

Collection of 137 Small Business Twitter Tips (PDF).


More in: 77 Comments ▼

Anita Campbell Anita Campbell is the Founder, CEO and Publisher of Small Business Trends and has been following trends in small businesses since 2003. She is the owner of BizSugar, a social media site for small businesses.

77 Reactions
  1. Anita, thanks for including my tip. Good to know I contributed 1/137ths of this report.

  2. Hi Robert, 🙂

    Yes, but your contribution was worth much more than 137th.

    The whole is worth a lot more than the sum of individual parts. All that wisdom wrapped up in one … it’s great advice for any small business.

    Thanks for contributing.

    Anita

  3. Thanks for including my answer to Question #5 – How do you manage your time on Twitter? That’s a #GoodThing 🙂

    Could I use this document in my social media course this autumn – winter?

    All the Best,

    Martin
    P.S. I am bit tired of Twitter again… I am up against their follow limit again. I think it is a pretty random rule… I am following 2365 users and 2086 are following me at the moment.

  4. Anita,
    You have the makings of at least a couple of books with all this sage advice you’ve gathered over the last few years.
    This is a great pdf.
    Thanks
    TJ

    P.S. Oops! And a huge thanks for including my small comment about TwitterBar and mentioning my AllBusiness blog (found above, too).

  5. Anita – Very interesting.

    Martin – I know how you feel. Twitter keeps a lot of the limits secret so that apps can’t be constructed to find a way around it.

    Happy Tweeting!

    -Steve aka @implu

  6. Steve,

    Yes, Twitter has created a “black box”. Talking about secrets, did you see the post on TechCrunch? “Twitter’s Internal Strategy Laid Bare: To Be “The Pulse Of The Planet””

  7. Anita,

    Thanks for including my tip, and putting together this wonderful collection.

    I also recommend Tim O’Reilly and Sarah Milstein’s new book, The Twitter Book, http://www.impressionsthroughmedia.com/?p=2195.

    The hashtag for the book on twitter is #TwitterBook.

    Best,
    Debbie Hemley
    Weber Media Partners
    http://www.impressionsthroughmedia.com

  8. I made the list, yeah! This is great stuff. 🙂 Thank you so much for not only listing our tips but for sharing our links and helping us get some exposure. You are too generous! Most other sites would just use this data to promote themselves but you go above and beyond by giving us the opportunity to shine also.

  9. ultrayellowpages

    How do we to get the biggest bang for our social media buck? In other words, understanding the metrics of Twitter is on everyone’s mind these days. As marketers attempt to determine the efficacy of their overall social media marketing strategy and how “the new kid on the block” fits into it, the challenge becomes, how do we optimize and monetize our efforts? In other words, how do we quantify Twitter?

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  10. Anita: Creating this guide is a great way to leverage all this great info and put into a form that can go viral.

    This will go down as the “bible for small business tweeting”… helping take the mystery and fear for folks who want to start tweeting. And for those already using, there are many, many great ways to improve!

    Well done Anita and the amazing community of contributors here at Small Business Trends. Glad to be a part of the effort!

    Cheers, Grant

  11. Great Pdf! THanks so much…

    Keep up the great work

    Dbk

  12. Thank you for including me. I retweeted it, of course. 😉

  13. Wow, now this is a real treat. I can’t wait to dive in – thank you!

  14. Hi Anita – I just wanted to thank you for the mention here too! I appreciate your work very much – I consistently learn and gain insight from this blog… must be why you’re one of the top blogs in the world – yes 🙂 you definitely set the standard!

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  16. hi,

    I started to follow people a long time ago.I thought that there are so many people in this world and I know a few…and I like Twitter because one can build a relationship and share thoughts and so the world gets smaller and smaller everyday…no limits, no borders…but as you said in another article we have to trust each other…this is difficult…

  17. Jason - SimpleWeb

    This is a great book, even the most experienced businesses using Twitter could find something in here to improve their Tweets.

    The section providing tips for being retweeted is extremely valuable!

  18. I already download and read it. It look interested. but the way it write is quite confusing. I believe it would be easier to read if put in categories.

  19. Thanks ever so much for posting up a fantastic twitter guide. I have used twitter for a while now and have been trying to get my head around how best to use it as an effective tool for my websites. This guide is going to help loads. Thanks.

  20. Thanks for including my tip. I’ve re-tweeted it a few times now and have seen it get reposted by others. Pretty KEWL!

    @mariamarsala

  21. This is Excellant stuff! Thanks so much everyone who contributed!

  22. Great post, and the guide is simply awesome. I hope that it will help me to grow my business with twitter.

  23. Very interesting!

  24. Thank you everyone for all your tips and Anita for collecting them. Very helpful. I was reading most of them from your May post.

    Until I saw the date on your contest, I was going to add that newbie Twitter users need to be patient with themselves as they learn how to manage their time, their tweets and all the applications that can be added once your following grows. As with everything, there is a learning curve involved.

  25. Thanks for posting these tips and not having a splashy SIGN UP HERE… stuff which is totally annoying.

  26. Most Twitterers give up after a few tweets, unable to think of a really good way to leverage it for thier business.

    One practitioner I really like is hardybee. follow him, and get his tips on running a small business. He is one of the few twitter users who has found a way of making it useful.

  27. I created a free tutorial on how to schedule future Tweets wishing your friends/followers a Happy Birthday. It’s a great way to stay connected, even if you have limited time to do so:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CcjHlySkqEs

  28. farbige kontaktlinsen

    Thanks for sharing this, it will really improve my use of twitter.

  29. A great resource for those starting out in the Twittersphere.

    I’d vote for another question: the most common question I get when I mention Twitter . . .

    Question #0 – Why Use Twitter?

    My answer would be: “It’s a great way to extend your network, find useful information and to enhance your brand”

    Anyone else?

    (Oh – and can we have a Tweetmeme RT button on this article?)

  30. Excellent resource! Thank you to all who contributed

  31. Nice stuff full of tips, great to help small businesses to start!
    To be on Twitter is a good thing I think for new businesses, even more if you work online…
    Thanks again

  32. An excellent resource. Thanks to everyone who contributed.

  33. Great PDF.

  34. Have just downloaded the PDF, great tips! Thanks to everybody who contributed to it. Cheers Ted

  35. Ron from Bike Trainer Reviews

    I’ll be anxious to see the results, since my Twitter results have been abysmal.

  36. What a great way to get feedback for such a timely topic. I’m new to the whole twitter culture but have been getting my feet wet lately! I love the idea of being able to connect with virtually anyone across the world in real time!

  37. Found this really interesting, thanks for sharing!