Faith and Business 101: Finding Affordable Advertising (pt. 2)

In my last Faith and Business 101 article, I touched on the importance of affordable advertising and how social media is the best free advertising you can get! Last week we talked about Facebook, this week we’re going to focus on a very popular social media craze–Twitter.

Even if you don’t have a Twitter account I’m sure you’ve heard of it. Even mega businesses, and of course celebrities, are realizing the high value of Twitter and jumping on the bandwagon. I found it interesting to find that even things like the Coast Guard have official twitter pages. Any savvy small business owner will realize the enormous potential of twitter and start tweeting!

As it is a huge craze right now you can find countless tutorials on proper twitter etiquette and decoding twitter language like like hastags, tweets, tweeps, retweet, follow friday, etc.

I will be the first to admit that I’m not all that crazy about Twitter. Personally I like Facebook a whole lot more, *but* I currently have over 1,000 twitter followers and am actively engaged in building my base and tweeting because I know the vast wealth of information, networking, and resources to be found in twitter. Staying active on Twitter does not have to be difficult, either. You can use apps to link your blog or Facebook Fan Page to your Twitter account so that each time you post on there it is automatically tweeted out. You can also use things like Twaiter to schedule your tweets in advance.

The same type of rules go with Twitter as Facebook–if all you post is sales or promoting yourself you will get no real followers. To get a truly successful page with lots of engaged followers you need to do a mix of questions, quotes, sales, and retweets. Responding to others on twitter and getting conversations going is a great way to gain followers and build friendships. Many, many businesses reap most of their sales from Twitter.

One thing I might caution is to be careful about giving items as giveaways in twitter parties. Though these are a *great* way to gain followers, get info, and have fun-usually for the gifts participants learn little to nothing about you or your company (unless you are the one main focus of the party).  In my mind it is less useful or promotional than a giveaway and review on a blog–but that is just my two cents.

So, look up some tutorials on Google and happy tweeting! If you have any other questions or would like me to direct you to great Twitter resources feel free to look me up on there {@Coastiewife321}. :)

Copyright © Nicole Elliott, Moms of Faith, All Rights Reserved

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