You may get tired of seeing articles that detail how small businesses are using Twitter, but I don’t. 
I love finding new examples of SMB success, and the New York Times published an article this week with several good examples.
One of the examples they featured is Humphry Slocombe, an ice cream shop in San Francisco. It seats 14 people, but has close to 300,000 followers. How?
“We have a product that changes daily. Our customers were asking, ‘How do you keep us up to date on the different flavors?’ Twitter was the perfect answer.”
That’s a quote from co-owner Sean Vahey in the Times article. He describes their tweeting style as “ice cream with attitude.” Like this:
The article offers Twitter advice for small businesses using several examples. The takeaways:
- First of all, listen
- Do not be boring
- A live version of a FAQ
- Create a focus group
- Soapbox for thinkers
- Starting small is fine
It’s all good advice, and the whole article is worth a read. Here’s the link again.
May 28, 2010 - 9:02 am
Don’t be boring is key. Business who display a personality will always be victorious. Don’t be annoying but have a fun side to your business and show it.
May 28, 2010 - 9:09 am
“thank u-thank u vurry much.” I love it! They should offer classes on how to Tweet!
May 28, 2010 - 9:13 am
I know, seriously! Pretty fun to look back through their Twitter stream.
May 29, 2010 - 10:20 pm
[...] Matt McGee’s summary of the article is quite apt: * First of all, listen * Do not be boring * A live version of a FAQ * Create a focus group * Soapbox for thinkers * Starting small is fine [...]
June 1, 2010 - 11:13 am
Alas, the “don’t be boring” advice falls on mostly deaf ears. While I do not subscribe to the idea that there is a single right way to use Twitter (as way too many “gurus” do), if your goal is to connect with customers and potential customers, you have to find a way to engage them. Not being boring is the first step. Getting them to interest with you is the second step. But since that creates more work for the staff, many businesses seem to try to avoid such engagement…which brings us to the question: “Why be on Twitter in the first place?”
June 3, 2010 - 11:45 am
[...] For Your Business 03. Jun, 2010 0 CommentsShareDigg DiggYou’ve probably read stories about businesses using Twitter.As the examples show, there are great ways to use Twitter to grow your business.But [...]
June 4, 2010 - 9:35 am
That’s a modern ice cream company right there! This is an amazing example for small business Twitter usage. I agree that Twitter updates should not always sound boring, but not every company has ice cream flavors to talk about. A good strategy for providing some interesting updates, without being too silly, might be to incorporate a certain percentage of updates where you think outside of the box and post something more unique than usual. This will give your followers a variety of responses, like inspiration, more interest, more sales, and much more. I like seeing how big businesses and small businesses use Twitter, as they can all be very creative with good effectiveness.