Can Twitter Help Build Your Online Drop Ship Business?

Would your drop ship business benefit from Twitter?

What is Twitter, anyway?

Twitter is a social networking and micro-blogging tool. It allows you to send 140 character mini-messages or updates to anyone following your profile and/or the public Twitter stream.

Twitter started small and is growing every day, with almost 7 million users at last count.

Granted, 140 characters isn’t enough to write much of a message, you might be surprised at how much information you can pack into those 140 characters by judicious use of your words.

How can Twitter be of benefit to the netrepreneur?

Well, it can actually be a pretty valuable little tool for a business! In fact, even big major media outlets such as CNN are using Twitter to get viewer reactions and get discussions started about breaking news and events.

Here are 10 things to think about before you get started on Twitter to help promote and build your internet dropshipping business:

How will you use Twitter?
Decide before you begin exactly how you intend to make use of Twitter. Will it be mainly used for customer support or to send out notifications of sales and promotions? Or will you use it basically as a social networking tool to grow your business?

Use your business name.
But use your first name, too, in order to personalize things a bit. The whole idea of Twitter is to establish a more personal relationship with customers and the public. You will seem more real if you use your first name, too, along with your business name. For example: Tarzan_JungleWorld.

Use a real photo instead of a logo.
Fill out the description so people will know what they’ll be following, and include a link to your website. Don't worry about getting a glamour shot made for your photo. You aren't entering a beauty pageant or hoping that a Hollywood producer will discover you on Twitter. All you need is a simple head shot, just so folks can see what you look like and identify with you more as a real person. Honestly, it wouldn't matter if you were so ugly you could hire out to haunt houses should your internet business fail---the point is to have a photo of a live person.

Be yourself.
Part of developing a more up close and personal relationship with your customers and the public is to be authentic. If you love vintage movie posters or collect teapots, share that info.

Don’t expect miracles overnight.
It will take time to build up a healthy following! Don’t get discouraged and give up too soon because you think things aren’t developing as quickly as they should. Like everything else worthwhile in life, Twitter will require an investment in your time and effort to really come together and start working for you.

Don’t try to follow too many people.
First of all, you will come across as an indiscriminate scammer if you leech onto any and everybody just because you can. Be a little selective and mainly follow other Twitterers that you have something in common with, either business-wise or personally.

Use TweetScan.
TweetScan will help you find people to follow. It will search by location, interests, topics, people---anything. This is a great little tool to help you find people to follow on Twitter.

Say something worthwhile.
Don’t blather on with nonsensical “tweets” just to be reaching out to touch someone. If you’re promoting your business, send a message about something relevant to your business and that might be worthwhile for others to know about.

Share information with others.
It doesn’t have to be about your business. Share a tidbit of interest about one of your hobbies, for instance, or a good book you just read or a movie you watched. It’s fine to share things relating to your business, but don’t drone on and on about your business to the exclusion of everything else. Remember, all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. Or Jill a dull girl, such as the case may be. You don’t want to bore people!

Enjoy yourself!
When someone is genuinely having fun, it shows! You will be a lot more likeable and generate more followers if you relax and have a good time with Twitter.

Twitter can be a great little tool to help promote and build your drop ship business! So, sign up and start tweeting!