Twitter Has Limited Potential For Small Business Profit Increases
Twitter Has Limited Potential For Small Business Profit Increases
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Twitter is a newer social media platform compared to blogging, or Facebook, but still, it's been around a few years, and this year (2009) it hit maximum buzz when entertainers like Oprah and sports figures "discovered it". This drove lots of people to it to at least try it out. There seems to be a lot of people suggesting that participating on Twitter is important, valuable or even essential for business small and large, and it is true that businesses are experimenting with it to communicate with customers and/or create or maintain a brand. Still, the majority of small business people try it and leave, concluding that it's got limited potential. Why? Because it actually HAS limited potential.
The reality is that while there are a number of loud, persistent people pushing the "twitter agenda", actual data to support the claim that it increases PROFITS is almost non-existent. Proponents are loud, fanatical, and convinced. That doesn't change the fact that there aren't that many businesses with a strong and documented success through using Twitter.
Starting Point
Here are a few things you should know about Twitter so as to be able to make sense of the later comments. Please keep in mind that I use Twitter quite extensively, and I have a long history of being a tech geek coupled with using technology to help my business exist and succeed.
It may seem that a tweet takes little time to compose. Sometimes that's the case, and sometimes not, but what we do know is that the "lifespan" of a tweet is exceedingly limited. That is, people will see it or not see it shortly after you send it, and after that immediate period, for all intents and purposes, it's gone. Compare that with a permanent, longer article on a web site, which takes longer to write, but can be useful and seen by people over YEARS.
In terms of business the value of the time you spend is going to be directly related to the number of people who read what you write (people who follow you AND read when you send something.)
The majority of people who might follow you aren't interested in more than a very small percentage of things you might write.
It's very difficult to have enough people following and reading your tweets so that it's worthwhile spending the time, let alone expect the people will buy something from you, or even visit your website.
Even more than is the case for blogs, you pretty much have to post to twitter, and interact with other people EVERY DAY. And you have to work and manage your followers (the people who sign on to read what you write), and the people you follow.
In essence the content you create has only "instant" use, and will be hard to reuse or re-purpose. You need to invest in Twitter use with your time to have any hope of achieving anything at all. Even if you do the odds are against you.
Why To Stay Away - Bad Fundamentals Bode Failure
Twitter is almost completely about buzz. You may have seen huge numbers illustrating how many millions of people have signed up. But in fact, the most recent numbers you have probably not heard about indicate that Twitter is NOT doing well, and that it is not going to do well. The majority of people who have tried it don't like it, and can't see a use. That's not surprising because apart from its novelty value, which wears off fast, it has very limited functionality. As a fun thing, it works. As a tool to achieve a goal it doesn't.
It's not surprising that the majority of tweets are from marketers selling things (to each other?) and people just having fun. Because it's simply a fun thing looking for purposes it can fulfil and it's not finding them.
Fundamentals refer to data/numbers about an endeavor that help us predict how it will do in the future. For example in the stock market, there are indicators that will suggest how that company will fare in the future. For example, a company that sells 1 million widgets at $10 but pays $11 to make them has really really bad fundamentals such that if it doubles its sales (usually a good thing) it will just go bust faster. It's no different with technologies. So what fundamentals are there to suggest Twitter is a poor investment (of time) for small business. We can draw from recent research published by Sysomos Inc. You can and should look at the numbers, but aggregated the numbers tell a very depressing tale indeed. Many people have joined twitter in 2009, but the huge majority of people don't use it at all, and are not engaged by it. This is critically important because it's NOT an issue of people resisting a new thing and not trying it. It's an issue of people trying it, and not liking it, and abandoning it. For example:
85.3% of Twitter users post less than one update a day.
21% have never posted a tweat
92.4% of users follow less than 100 people (This is important because it tells us that the "effective audience" for a tweet is, in fact, tiny. If they aren't following you, they won't see it and most people aren't following many people.
Likewise 93.6% of twitter users have less than 100 followers.
5% of Twitter users account for 75% if all activity (This is huge. It means the twitter fanatics are driving things and those are not likely to be your customers or future customers).
And, here's a quote from Rohit Bhargava:
Twitter is being led by the social media geeks. This particular finding should likely come as no surprise, but 15% of Twitter users who follow more than 2000 people identify themselves as social media marketers. These individuals are more likely to post updates every day (sometimes more than once per day) and also use Twitter more actively for direct communication.
Indeed, these numbers suggest that Twitter is a fad, is more buzz than substance, and has limited business possibilities now and into the future. So, do you want to invest time in establishing a presence on Twitter? Based on these numbers, and the fact that succeeding on Twitter requires time and patience over the long haul, the answer is no. A loud no. Except...
Do It If... you enjoy it and have spare time. If it's a fun hobby and you have no or little expectations regarding Twitter and your small business, go for it. That's what I do. I enjoy it. I'm working at it but it's not really work. If I saw it as work (like doing paperwork, filling out tax forms), I simply would not do it, because the payoff is so unlikely. So here's the bottom line: Don't invest your time in Twitter unless it's fun and recognize:
you probably will never see any positive business return
there's a significant chance that Twitter may not exist in two years
that what you write is like a feather in the wind and has almost no life span.
Here's the bottom line for those in a hurry. Do NOT invest the time on twitter with the expectation that it will yield business results. If you want to participate because it's fun, then do so. But don't do it for business, because you'll be disappointed now, and in the future.
This article originally appeared on the Small Business IQ Blog in modified form. If you would like to comment you can do so by clicking here.
Copyright Robert Bacal 2009. Reproduction is permitted provided all information is left intact, and EzineAritlces rules are followed.
Robert Bacal is a successful small business owner, and is the author of Perfect Phrases For Managing Your Small Business, published by McGraw-Hill in 2008. His business books have been translated into a number of languages, and sold around the world, and cover customer service, consulting
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