Recently, I as asked by the Small Business Division at Intuit write a new word of mouth Download WOM_MarketingToolkit for small business users. I was delighted as I believe fervently that the use of these new social media tools deliver real competitive advantage for almost no cost but the investment of time.
Imagine you are Riley's cafe a small diner in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. You're worried about the economy and its affect on your business. So you decide to create a special promotion to build patron loyalty and draw new customers in. You don't have a lot of money. You don't even have a website. What do you do?
I would suggest you do what Riley's cafe did, and tell folks about your new 25% discount each Tuesday breakfast or lunch -- and do it via Twitter.
Twitter is a microblog, a blogging tool which sends out only short
messages or "Tweets" of up to 140 characters. (Just to give you a sense
of it diminutive size, the first sentence in this paragraph in italics is 143 characters with spaces.)
So what happened... Well, apparently the Tweet was very successful, including getting picked up by the Cedar Rapids Gazette.
If you are looking to learn more about this amazing new tools, or simply just curious, go to the Intuit's Small Business Community. It is chocked full advice by other entrepreneurs just like you on how to successfully build or manage your business.
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