Are Twitter and Facebook really necessary for business?

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I am often asked: Do I really need Twitter for my business?  Many business can’t see themselves ‘tweeting’ and keeping up with their followers. They feel that it takes up too much time and that it would create too much ‘noise’. Truth is though that twitter is now part of life for an increasing number of people and tools like Twitter can be used in a way that does not take a whole lot of your time.

So how can businesses use Twitter in an effective way?

Twitter is an excellent way to deliver customer service. Even if you don’t use Twitter on a regular basis you can still set up an alert that notifies you whenever someone mentions your brand name or service.

For example: a few months ago I reviewed and tweeted about a software product (Dim Dim) I liked. Almost immediately I received a thank you from someone at Dim Dim, thanking me for the review. It is always be appreciated if someone mentions your product or service in a favourable way and you acknowledge that. It creates a lot of good will.

On the other hand when someone complains about your product or service on Twitter or needs support you could supply that straight away. It could help with avoiding customer dissatisfaction and you can keep updated on what’s happening with anything related to your product or service.

Twitter allows for direct communication between consumer and producer and can really help you with monitoring your company’s reputation. It may be risky for any business to ignore Twitter altogether.

What about facebook?

Facebook is now used in a similar way. Although you can’t setup alerts, you can have your own facebook page. It is quite easy to accumulate some fans through good posts or (inexpensive) advertising. Once you have a reasonable amount of fans interaction takes place on your ‘wall’.

It is very beneficial way to announce new product launches, specials, or interesting facts. Many customers now enter their concerns or enquiries directly on that fan page, as a direct response to your post or just because they were reminded of you while spending time on Facebook. These are customers that you may have otherwise missed if you did not have a presence on Facebook.

Even if you post just 1 new short message every 2 days, you can develop a very active community on Facebook. If you link your posts to your Twitter account, these posts will go out as tweets at the same time.

The bottom line

Setting up a profile on Twitter and Facebook takes fewer effort than you may think and apart from the benefits mentioned above it can also increase your search engine ranking for your business and increase your visibility on the web. So if your business targets consumers Twitter and Facebook are definitely worth considering as part of your web strategy.