A common refrain I hear from business people is that ‘Twitter is a waste of time’, a mere flood of unimportant trivia.
I have argued many times that used properly Twitter can play a significant role in developing and consolidating new business. To illustrate the point I have pointed to SME Twitter successes from around the world like the Hampton Coffee Company in the U.S. that uses the Twitter account to keep customers informed about the location of its Mobile Espresso Unit on any given day. What I haven’t done until now is gather SME Twitter success stories that have occurred here in the UK and even more specifically, Scotland.
After posting the discussion with several Scottish entrepreneurial groups on LinkedIn ‘Has anyone in this group or anyone you know found new business through an initial contact via Twitter?’ I very soon had a significant number of positive responses.
Debra Anderson of Bluejay Office Services in Paisley has benefited from Twitter in a very straightforward way. Searching ‘bookkeeper required’ or ‘know a bookkeeper?’ Debra contacted the individuals asking these questions via Twitter and succeeded on turning them into regular clients. Local Business Marketing Consultant, London based Ishavjot Singh, has also made important headway searching Twitter and was invited to put together a proposal for a software company he found tweeting that they “needed help with their social media and SEO”
Lucy Haughey at Director & Founder at The PlanB Partnership in Glasgow uses social media to build a reputation as a source of good and trustworthy information on finance management. One present day client approached PlanB Partnership via Twitter having developed a respect for the expertise and service oriented approach so evident in the company’s social media. Lucy writes “My unique social enterprise prides itself on bespoke, client advice and holistic services. It’s crucial we are ‘seen’ on social media commenting on wider topics and relevant posts so we can show our skills, knowledge and ethical personal agendas.” Lucy experience at PlanB Partnership demonstrates not simply the efficacy of Twitter for connecting with new business but also the importance of using it to project the character and expertise of her company.
Craig McKenna of The Growth Academy in Edinburgh writes that “Approx 60% of my current client base originated from Twitter and 85% of this year’s revenue to date can be attributed to Twitter” This success, he reports, has been gained through initial contact on Twitter and also informative tweeting “…playing a key role in strengthening the relationship.”
Commercial Director at Brightspace Steve Christie in Edinburgh also confirms the power of Twitter as showcase to attract new business reporting that, “A sales trainer associate of ours regularly tweets snippets of sales lessons that clients should be applying to their own sales force. Through this, he was contacted by a guy who found them informative, invited him for a coffee and further chat and then ended up becoming a client!”
The stories of Lucy, Steve and Craig serve an important lesson. Companies whose tweets amount to little more than ads for their products or services are wasting their time. Twitter is a 24/7 global networking session. You don’t go around a conventional networking session simply handing fellow attendees a business card and brochure, and nor should you on Twitter.
Does Twitter work for business? The answer must be a resounding YES. The experience of the respondents to my discussion on LinkedIn seem to confirm that Twitter is an increasingly important communication tool. In the case of Debra and Ishavjot it is a place where they have found prospective clients in search of services they are qualified to provide. For Lucy, Craig and Steve’s colleague it has become a place where they showcase the expertise and understanding that prove so effective in attracting clients.
To finish there are several other notable Scottish Twitter successes I’ve learnt of through my LinkedIn discussion that I’d like to list here.
- Neil Harrison, Marketing & Performance Manager at ESPC, writes, “2 companies we currently work with we do so as a result of seeing their work talked about and posted on Twitter. We also found a contractor thanks to a tweet from Napier University for an opening we had”
- Stewart Ritchie, Director at web design and development company PoweredByCoffee writes that Twitter is “One of our key sources for finding and being referred to new clients for web design and development.”
- Business Manager at FW Accounting Diane Holden comments, “We have picked up a number of clients through twitter, and been able to give business too.”
- Alison Hutcheson, Video & Podcast Producer of Woods Noble Media in Glasgow reports “I was contacted directly on Twitter by someone I’d not known before to ask if I could provide a promotional video for an event. (I think that I had followed them) We spoke on the phone and I sent some work examples and was given the job. On another occasion I was asked to give a workshop on the use of video as part of a social media conference. The person who asked me did already follow me and we had a mutual contact, but it was Twitter that had kept me in his mind.”
If you have any other Twitter success stories from around SME UK then please share them here.
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