Is Twitter just a fad? Does Twitter really have the potential to do great things for local businesses? We find a lot of articles out there that are all atwitter about the benefits of advertising on Twitter. (See these articles that we have recently tweeted about for examples:  How Twitter Will Win Local Search; Twitter, Local Business, and Results; Twitter: The Killer Small Business App; How Twitter Can Help Local Business; and Twitter, social networks open new marketing channels, among others not listed here.)

Is it really true though? We here at TweetWagon are building our website and business with the mind that Twitter is an increasingly valuable tool for local business marketing. Could it be that we have based our plans on a paper tiger? 

Gene Marks has written an article called Beware Social Media Marketing Myths attempting to portray as a myth the idea that there is value in advertising on social networking sites such as Twitter.  Indeed, his article has gotten some notable Twitter action with more than a couple people tweeting a link to the article.  We, however, take issue with much of what Mr. Marks has asserted. 

Let me say right now that we believe that Twitter has abounding untapped potential for local business marketing.  And TweetWagon exists to make certain that potential is realized.  My purpose here is to convince those who are apprehensive that Twitter is a valuable marketing tool by debunking Marks myths claims.   

Gene Marks addresses five so-called myths regarding the value of advertising on social networking sites: 1) Social media sites are free; 2) Social media sites are a great place to find new customers; 3) You need to be on all the big sites; 4) Social networking sites are for marketing; 5) Social networking is the future.  For the purposes of this article I will only be addressing those points which directly relate to the value of advertising locally on Twitter. 

Let us first look at myth #1:  Social media sites are free.  Marks makes a valid point here when he highlights that advertising on sites such as Twitter are not free because they take your time.   However, he mixes messages about marketing and customer service.  It takes very little time to advertise on sites such as these.  It may take more time to engage in customer service.  However Marks treats the time it takes for customer service and advertising as the same when they are actually very different.

If a company sticks strictly to advertising on Twitter then it can take as little as fifteen to twenty minutes per day-maybe less than that.  The more businesses utilize services like the one we offer-being listed on a one-stop Twitter local business directory (http://tweetwagon.com/c/info) the less the business has to worry about things such as spending time on their social media account for the purpose of creating buzz.  Now the business can simply put out a tweet or post and let their listing generate followers.

Another argument Marks uses to support his first “myth” is that businesses have to respond to comments or messages on their account and post graphics.  We think these things are unnecessary.  It all has to do with how the business wants to use their social media (Twitter specifically) account.  If the business intends to advertise with the account then there isn’t much need or expectation to engage in customer service through the account as well.  Most likely the business already has a cost-effective customer service method for their business. 

We believe businesses should be using Twitter to simply tweet about sales, exclusive deals, profound thoughts, and interesting articles.  Regarding the graphics, that should be a one-time thing.  When setting up your account you can add a graphic to your profile and you’re done.  What more graphics are necessary?When done correctly, advertising on Twitter should be the most inexpensive advertising available to businesses.

Myth #2:  Social media sites are a great place to find new customers.  Marks states this is a myth because Myspace is used mostly by teenagers, and Facebook does not contain many people who are interacting with small businesses. 

It is probably a good thing for a small business who wants to advertise on twitter to have a semi-current Facebook page.  This does not have to be any labor intensive thing.  Maybe it would be something that would be updated and managed once or twice a week for twenty to thirty minutes. The purpose of a Facebook page probably would not be to get a lot of new customers, but to look like you are relevant and maybe get a bunch of new fans who may spread your brand name virally. 

 Marks attempts to devalue Twitter by exaggerating a statistic that states that twitter is not keeping a lot of people consistently engaging and being active on their site.  The problem with this is that he does not account for the rapid upward trend in Twitter over the past twelve months, and he does not account for the future of Twitter. 

The fact is that there are millions of users who have a Twitter account.  Hundreds of thousands of these users are using Twitter regularly, and all of the millions of users are looking for something valuable in Twitter.  What more value can you have in increasing activity on Twitter than to save actual money by following a local business in order to get first hand knowledge of deals and discounts.  That is what local businesses adverstising on Twitter have to offer.  And consumers are benefitting more and more from it. 

One great example of the potential of advertising on Twitter is the story of a pizza company named Naked Pizza in New Orleans.  They began attracting followers on Twitter.  They tracked their sales for one day in April and found that 15% of their sales were from twitter followers responding to a Twitter exclusive discount. 

The inconsistency in Marks’ second myth is obvious as he concludes.  After criticizing social media sites, especially Twitter, for having no interested consumers, he then begins to recommend various sites that are designed, function, and are made up solely of business owners and managers who “go to post and answer questions about product problems, customer service queries, saving money on taxes, generating leads, (and) hiring employees.”  Is he saying that businesses will find interested consumers on sites such as these?  I don’t think so. 

Another problem with Marks’ argument is that he does not, cannot know how many new customers a business will acquire from word of mouth via Twitter.  If I am following a local business on Twitter and see a deal for 30% off and hear my friend is looking for a good deal,  I may pass the knowledge of the sale on to him.  Advertising on Twitter has enormous, immeasurable word of mouth potential. 

Myth # 3:  You need to be on all the big sites.  We cannot disagree too much with Marks here.  He basically argues that you should not “spread yourself too thin.”  This seems like good advise generally.  However, we will tweak this advise a bit and say that you should have a main headquarters on one site (like Twitter) and have an account on another one or two that functions as a reference to the main site you are using.  Similar to the method of using Facebook and Twitter as mentioned above. 

Myth #4:  Social networking sites are for marketing.  Marks presents Mike McDerment, CEO of Freshbooks, as an example of someone who finds tremendous value in using social networking sites for customer service.  Although we do not discount the value of doing this, we adamently disagree that customer service is the only good use.  We think that you need to use your social networking account for it’s intended purpose.  If this means that the purpose is to provide excellent customer service, then let that be it’s purpose. 

The big point here is advertising and customer service are two distinct parts of your business.  You can’t have one and not the other.  So just because service can be effective when done via social networking sites, that does not affect how you will use your social networking account for advertising. 

Myth #5:  Social networking is the future.  It is impossible to portray this as a myth unless you know the future.  We can tell you this….Twitter is still very much on the rise and still evolving.   Plus, you do not decide on how you will advertise and market today based on where your customers will be in five years.  You have to go to where they are now.  There is huge untapped potential in local businesses advertising locally on twitter.  There have been proven success stories from companies who have tried it. 

There are services being created like  the one we offer at http://tweetwagon.com/c/info that are designed to assist the connections between local consumers and local businesses.  So we would say that there is no need to worry about where the best advertising is in the future; people are looking for good deals today, now. 

 We look at other websites that have taken root in the way in which regular consumers save money. It is in the basic instincts of consumers in a free market system to find new and effective ways to save money and get more value for their money. Thus we have the long time American staple of yard sales, garage sales, estate sales, and auctions. With the age of the internet we have the online version of things which are unmistakeable.

There is craiglist that operates as a stand alone online classified ad system nationwide.  There is Amazon which one can find used and new items for competitive prices.  There is ebay, a true online auction site where people can buy and sell new and used items.  All of these sites are ones which exist to connect buyers who are looking at alternative buying methods as a way to save money with sellers who have a deal to offer but need a center of commerce in which to find potential buyers.

Advertising on Twitter must be done right.  You have to figure out how to get your name out there and get followers.  But there are easy ways to make that happen.  We are finding more and more articles and success stories written every day about the value and benefits of advertising locally on Twitter.  One thing we know is true:  Twitter’s value to businesses is anything but a myth.