Social Startups: Pre-Launch Your Small Business Using Twitter

You can’t expect to one day show up on Twitter when every thing is perfect and in place. It takes time to develop a voice and a community of followers. This requires constant efforts to engage, interact, and build a community that advocates and champions your small business. It’s a constant labor of love.

To get started, this is what I advise.

1. Start where you are.

Rather than waiting for a lightning bolt moment of clarity, start building your Twitter community right now. This means that by the time you’re ready to start talking about what you’re doing and driving traffic to your company website, you’ll have a small tribe of people listening and ready to spread the word.

2. Don’t wait for business perfection.

Don’t become consumed with the idea that you don’t have the nuts and bolts of your business figured out. It’s okay if you don’t have the perfect brand or razor sharp messaging points.

Remember, you can change your social media account settings (i.e. bio and branding) as you grow your small business.

Perhaps you’re an entrepreneur still waiting to get clear on who your buyer or purchase decision maker is? If you’re not sure yet, communicate a summary overview of what you do and why you do it. This simple message will naturally attract Twitter followers that are interested in what you have to say.

Benefits of Getting Started on Twitter

Don’t make the mistake of waiting to engage on Twitter.

When you’re ready to launch your small business you’ll be so pleased that you didn’t hold off on leveraging one of the most powerful social networking tools there is. You’ll also get past that initial Twitter panic that occurs with putting yourself out there and becoming acclimated with Twitter terminology.

There is a global audience of people and potential customers that you can start interacting with right now. Social media is excitingly full of possibilities. I’ve personally shared tweets with hugely inspiring people and engaged in thoughtful conversations, which also increased my website traffic. For me, Twitter is a place where anything is possible and I love that about it.

So, stop waiting and start exploring and have fun with building brand awareness on social networks such as Twitter.

When you approach social media from a place of learning and excitement, it can become a seamless part of your business development activities and you can become an even more powerful and engaged business owner for it.

Style a business you’ll love on your terms and join our savvy tribe of Career Stylists. Sign-up for my email newsletter.

Connect with Beth on Twitter @bethreacher.

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Photo: Etam