Twitter Buzz

Social networking is all the rage on the Internet. It’s been going on for awhile but it seems to have really picked up steam lately. So, as a new business owner, I have been researching the various social networking sites, one of which is Twitter. There is a lot of Twitter Buzz going on out there!

There are different schools of thought about how to sign up on a social network. By that I mean do you register under your own name or under your company name? I suppose that question can best be answered by how you intend to use the social networking site. If it’s strictly for promoting your business, the thought is that you should register under the business name. Obviously, a more social use would dictate that you register under your own name. I suppose you could also register both ways, and have two pages, but how many things can you keep up with in a day?

With Twitter and it’s limitation of 140 characters, Twitter buzz is going to be necessarily succinct. You can’t say much in that tiny of a space. Many bloggers are finding that the Twitter Effect that results is that they aren’t posting to their blogs as much because they are making several Twitter posts a day and getting things “off their chests”, so to speak. Then they don’t want to repeat themselves in their blogs.

The biggest thing that I am reading about Twitter is that, even if you are using it to promote your business, you shouldn’t constantly inundate followers with your product or business information. You definitely don’t want a different type of Twitter effect: driving your customers away. People want to get to know you, sort of like when you go to a favorite restaurant because you like a certain server. You feel more comfortable buying from or using a service from someone you know. So, it’s OK to inject personal references to your daily life, just try to strike a nice balance between the boring “I am eating a blueberry muffin” posts and the “visit my site and buy my product” posts.

That should help you get your own Twitter buzz going!

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Small Business Set Up Info

As a small (make that micro) business owner who is just getting set up, let me tell you, it is overwhelming! I keep telling myself that it’s going to be all right – I’ll get through this! But just when I think I’ve covered all the bases, something else pops up that needs to be done.  Business cards, a phone number so your new customers can reach you, a blog (you’re here!), Twitter , Facebook (Robin Schiltz), a business license, a trade name registration, etc…it’s daunting. And, I haven’t found a lot of small business set up advice out there unless you are willing to pay for it.

As anyone who has ever done it can tell you, when you are starting out, you have to keep the small business set up costs low. While doing my research, I came across Vistaprint which is a good resource for free business cards (if you don’t mind having their information printed on the back of your business cards. Plus, when you are up and rolling, you can go back and spring for the pricier, flashier, non-vistaprint-info-impregnated cards). Phone lines can be an issue – the major phone companies charge an arm and a leg (plus, they want your firstborn) to set up a business line. A great alternative is having a phone line that runs through the computer and doesn’t require a land-line installation. Skype will give you an online business phone for a low subscription rate (you can call computer to computer, call mobile phones, and you can even call internationally from your computer).

I’m off to do more research and post more when I have some more small business set up advice and info about set up costs.