I was thinking about signing up for Twitter but I am not very familiar with how it works..I am also not one to jump on every hour and report what little I am doing ...so....my question is...


Is it worth it from a business point of view to sign up for a account??



Thanks

Laurel

Anyone..Would really like to know...

IMO twitter is a great alternative to a traditional email mailing list, we use it to announce new products, events we will be attending, new press coverage, etc. The big advantage to twitter is that you can publish news as it happens (including time-sensitive news) instead of waiting for the next scheduled mailing.

I have Mailchimp also but I am finding that only 38-40 out of 116 emails are actually getting through people's spam filters..I thought Twitter might be a better alternative...but I want to use it to basically advertise etc...you know check out my website etc...not really to talk about personal stuff or say I am sitting here twiddling my thumbs right now...LOL

Here's our twitter feed as an example, we don't even offer an email mailing list.
http://twitter.com/#!/allergyfreecake

You are free to create as many twitter accounts as you want, so if you want a separate account (or accounts) for personal use you can make them. You can even create throwaway accounts: I created a twitter account near the end of my wife's pregnancy just so I could post updates on the birth to our friends and relatives -- anyone who subscribed to that feed could set their phone to alert them when there is a new post, it was much easier than emailing or calling several different people. After our daughter was born I just stopped using that account.

Hmmm..Interesting Jason..I will have to look into it further..Thanks so much for the info!!

Okay so another point..if and when I sign up do I give my full real name or my Kiddiekakes name?

You can give any name you want, you would just need a separate email address for each twitter account.

For those of you who have your business on Twitter, how is it different/better than Facebook? We announce things on our Facebook page, post photos, etc. I haven't seen the need for Twitter as well. Just wondering if there is a good reason to have both.

You can certainly use FB for announcements, but IMO FB is more about making two-way social connections with customers, while Twitter is more of a platform for announcing news to followers.

I experimented with some FB features for our bakery, but it didn't really pan out, since our core competency is making cakes and not running a social media site. We already had a web site, so our FB page turned out to be pretty redundant...I just left a shell FB account for our business that links back to our web site. I suppose we could have used FB as a mailing list, but Twitter seemed to work better for that function, and customers were less likely to lose our announcements in the avalanche of status updates from their FB friends.

Here is a pretty good comparison of the pros and cons of each:
http://www.twitip.com/twitter-versus-facebook/

Then there's Google+, which will supposedly include some very interesting features for businesses (including tying in with maps, online payments, and mobile payments) that integrate with the rest of the Google ecosystem. It's looking like FB might be on the decline within the next few years unless they partner up with an eBay or Microsoft to bolster their business-focused offerings.

More info on Google+:
http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/235272/why_google_business_profiles_will_trump_facebook_pages.html

Thanks Jason! I will look over all of that.

Thanks Jason....Some Excellent resources here...

I LOVE me some Twitter. I don't really use it as a business thing, since I'm not in business, but I use it as a way to keep up with my favorite bloggers, celebs, and the occasional cake blogger or two. Duff is on Twitter now and actually retweeted the link I sent him for the GA Cottage Food Law Facebook page.
The Twitter account I use for my mommy blog has over 500 followers. The cake blog I just started? Well--not nearly that many just yet but I don't use that account too often to begin with.
Twitter is a nice place to connect with people who are internet-savvy, so I think it could be a good tool for a business in addition to Facebook, websites, blogs, etc.