By now, you probably know that Twitter is used by of millions of SMBs each day who share, connect and promote their businesses online and for free. Here are a few reasons:

Connect

You can grow a community of followers who will have a direct connection to you and who recognize your name and business brand. You can also barter, search for independent contractors or find employees. Twitter provides a great platform to connect with the right people to fit your business needs. In addition, this is great way for existing customers to provide feedback.

Twitter is also a great way for you to keep an eye on competitors. Monitor your rivals so that you know what they are up to! It may provide inspiration and also help you to gain a competitive advantage.

Market

Most small businesses have a very small marketing budget which results in continuously looking for low cost and innovative ways to leverage their products or services. Twitter is a free social network that can be a rewarding marketing tool for your business.

Sell

By using twitter to announce upcoming sales or events, you will drive potential customers to your website or physical location.

Integrating Twitter with your website

Once you create a Twitter account for your business and start tweeting, you can easily integrate your feed with your website in Your Web Department.

In addition to adding a button linked to your Twitter page to all your website pages (using YWD’s Global Content feature) you can embed the Twitter feed itself into any page, without any programming. You simply add a Twitter Feed content block to any page. Type in your Twitter username in the field, change the default colours and width if you want and click ‘Save’. That’s it! YWD will automatically start fetching your tweets and displaying them on your website.

Still not convinced? Don't have the time to tweet? You can still use Twitter to your website's advantage. You can add a social bookmarking widget – similar to the vertical badge you see on the left of this blog page – so visitors can bookmark your page directly to Twitter or any other social networking service of their choice. With 1 click, a link to your website will appear on their Twitter feeds, driving trafic to your website. You can add this vertical badge (or several other layouts and combinations) in YWD. Again, no coding is required.

A Twitter Feed content block dialog form

Don't have a Twitter account? Get one for free at www.twitter.com

Don't have a Your Web Department website? Sign up or try it for free at www.yourwebdepartment.com