Introducing Josh Chandler After meeting Josh at a social media event and him kindly providing me with an iPhone charger (we all know those things need charging 5 times a day) we became event buddies. For 19 years old Josh has a great understanding of the business world and has already made his mark on the blogging world by breaking the acquisition of Summize by Twitter story in 2008. He is not afraid to speak his mind and this post is no different where he offers an alternative POV on Twitter Advertising

You may not agree with me, but I thought Pete Cashmore’s recent CNN column about Twitter advertising wasn’t great.

He called the addition of advertising in the trending topics of Twitter search ‘ingenious’.

Yeah right.

Regardless of how much it costs to get onto Twitter‘s trending topics, it’s just not something I would personally believe provides great R.O.I for small businesses.

Here’s why:

  • You are artificially buying into Twitter’s premium real estate. It’s not because a lot of people are talking about your product or service. Unlike Google Adwords, you aren’t delivering an advert to a ‘targeted searcher’.
  • You only move up the list of top searches on Twitter as you gain popularity. There is very little chance that a small business is going to likely generate that much buzz on Twitter.

So, what are the alternatives? As a small business owner you’ve got to ensure you get the most targeted traffic to your site in order to maintain high conversion rates.

1) Use Twitter for free advertising

It’s not necessary to pay Twitter (yet!) to promote your business. You can still set up a profile, post relevant updates to your niche and engage actively with your targeted audience.

Staples, an office products retailer reaches 34,762 people on Twitter. It has been able to use Twitter not only for customer service but also as a free promotion tool for its product. The company implements regular giveaways to encourage users to follow their Twitter account.

2) Launch a company blog and post frequently with relevant information

Nothing sells better then the peer to peer recommendation. It is imperative that small businesses launch a company blog. It provides a free portal to post corporate updates, reactions to industry developments and links out to other engaging industry resources.

Whole Foods uses its blog to share recipes and video tutorials around the topic of natural food. In an interview with Mashable.com in 2009 Bill Tolany, the company’s Senior Coordinator of Integrated Media said:

Whoever is managing an account needs to be authentic, allow his or her personality to come through, and have fun in the process.

If you read any of the blog posts on the Whole Foods Blog you’ll see they do a really great job at built a human connection. The unique aspect of launching a blog is that you can include all different types of interactive media. Employees can then embed videos, images and audio with ease.

3) Get a Small Business Listing on Google Maps

Google Maps is used every day by people who are either looking for personal usage or are trying to locate their nearest coffee shop. Starting from $25 a month, you can advertise your business with tags on Google Maps and Google.com.

The benefit of being on Google Maps is that you are placed directly in the view of millions of potential customers.

The introduction of Universal Search on the Google search results pages also means that if someone searches “Coffee Store London”, your business has a chance to appear in the listings with a link to the map.

4) Become actively involved in professional business organizations

If you know of any local meet ups or business networks, join them. This is free viral word of mouth with unlimited potential. One to one relationships always connect people on a far deeper level.

Become active in networking with others and be sure to create a 30-60 second pitch about your business.

You can use networks such as 4Networking, Meetup, LinkedIn

As you can see there are plenty of alternative opportunities besides Twitter Promoted Advertising. Seriously, I would personally recommend avoiding it, but you may have needs which can be matched by using it.

Here is what others have been saying about Twitter Promoted Advertising:

Twitter Promoted Tweets: Scandal Or Big Yawn?

Is Twitter’s Promoted Trends And Traffic Surge Causing Fail Whale?

Will Promoted Tweets Earn Twitter Revenue to Infinity and Beyond?

Have you got some thoughts on this post?

  • Are you a small business using Twitter to advertise your business, if so how?
  • What other alternatives can you suggest small businesses can advertise on the web
  • Do you think Twitter Promoted Advertising in the trending topics is a great idea? If so why


    • Who is Josh Chandler?

    Josh Chandler, 19 years old and living in the U.K. Currently run a virtual assistant website which launched in May 2010. Working on the web since the age of 16 and have maintained and contributed to several business and technology blogs. Find out more about me at LinkedIn

    ‘Tell us something about you that no one or very few people know’

    I can play the saxophone


    Visit www.joshchandlerblog.com

    @joshchandler

Post to Twitter Tweet This Post