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Even though the economy has been dismal and unemployment has been on the rise, a fascinating phenomenon suggests that small businesses and boutique firms stand to gain customers in these trying times.  Let’s face it, whether times are good or bad small businesses have never been able to afford the luxury of being wasteful, inefficient, or careless with money.  Large corporations, on the other hand, which are bureaucratic by their very nature, have a tendency to become highly inefficient and wasteful when times are good.  When faced with an economic downturn, the inevitable occurs in a large corporation—mass downsizing resulting in a loss of valuable talent and customer service.  Consequently, the large name brand company that customers were paying for tends to lose its luster in the face of lost relationships and customer support.

Peter Bregman, CEO of Bregman Partners, Inc., a global management consulting firm, also believes that small companies will win in this economy.  He states that “Small is the new big.  Sustainable is the new growth.  Trust is the new competitive advantage.”  He says that “small companies with low overhead, reliable owners, a small number of committed employees, personal client relationships, and sustainable business models that drive a reasonable profit are the great opportunity of our time.”  To read more about Bregman’s point of view on this topic visit his article Why Small Companies Will Win in This Economy.

The tenants of the Brentwood Business Center, the Sand Creek Business Center, and the Sand Creek Plaza are all too familiar with this mantra.  The majority of the tenants renting space in these Brentwood business centers are small local vendors with a particular focus on sustaining clients through relationships and keen customer service.  In fact, KMB Management, the managing firm over these properties, has developed a philosophy that embodies the spirit of Bregman’s slogan:  “Small is the new big. Sustainable is the new growth.  Trust is the new competitive advantage.”  Each new customer and/or potential customer at KMB Management is treated with respect, professionalism, kindness, and commitment. 

In closing, if you are a small business in this trying time don’t lose heart.  This is your golden opportunity to take advantage of the niche opportunities that are out there.  Just remember that small is the new big and the power of the personal relationship can never be underestimated.  Creativity may also be your number one asset in attracting new business and retaining loyal customers.  The business expert Peter Drucker once said that, “Business has only two basic functions—marketing and innovation.”  Therefore, turn your creativity into innovative marketing endeavors! 

Small, large, existing and start-up businesses alike can all benefit from building a community on Twitter.  If you are not familiar with Twitter, it is a social networking site designed to help people connect and share information.  Flyte, a web design and internet marketing company located in Portland, Maine, defines how Twitter works as follows:

“Twitter users—often called Tweeple (or worse)—have 140 characters to answer the question, “What are you doing?” If you join Twitter you can “follow” other tweeple, which causes their updates to appear on your home page. In turn, they can follow you, a form of permission-based marketing. You can also direct message them, but always in 140 characters or less.”

As of August, 2009, Twitter provides access to 23.6 million people according to Web-analytics firm Compete Inc.  It is apparent that Twitter has created a wonderful platform for business people to gain the attention of millions of people.  Therefore, the only question that remains is how does one use Twitter for Business?

Start by Building a Community

First you need to find the right people on Twitter.  One way to do this is by utilizing the Twitter search box which will find keyword matches in others’ profiles.  There are also several third party tools that allow for more advanced searches such as Who Should I Follow and Summize.  Who Should I Follow finds and suggests like-minded people based on your tweets.  Summize allows you to search tweets for keywords.  

In essence, you want to seek out industry leaders who post links to important resources and influence conversations.  Once you have discovered these people, you should do the following:   

• Post questions for quick answers and answer others’ questions to establish your credibility and expertise.
• Create links to your Web site or blog.
• Keep up on the buzz in your industry.

Get People to Follow You

According to Flyte, this is the way to get people to follow you on Twitter:

• Follow them. There’s an almost kneejerk reaction to follow people who follow you. However, there’s a backlash against people who follow just about everyone for the sole purpose of gaining followers. In short, be discriminating with whom you follow.
• Post some good tweets right before following someone else. I find that if someone follows me and they only tweet about how hungry or tired they are, I don’t follow them back. The same goes for people who haven’t tweeted in a while.
• Complete your bio. People rarely follow strangers, so complete your one-line bio and include a URL in the More Info URL section of your profile.
• Add your Twitter feed to your blog or to other social media profiles. If you have a following at your blog or a lot of connections at Facebook or LinkedIn, you can leverage this audience to increase your followers at Twitter.
• Reply to people you are following, especially if they’re not yet following you. That’s a good way to engage someone and get them to follow you, even if they didn’t follow you immediately.

Doing it Right

If you are still struggling with how to best utilize Twitter for your business, here are a few examples of how community based businesses might start implementing this powerful tool.  The Brentwood Business Center, for instance, is home to many local businesses such as general contractors, auto mechanics, heating and air contractors, a cheerleading and gymnastics school, and many more.  These businesses would us Twitter as follows:

• The general contractor tweets about current remodeling projects or new construction techniques. 
• The auto mechanic tweets about car repair promotions or car ownership advice for continued maintenance.
•  The heating and air contractors tweet about the latest innovations with energy efficiency.
•  And the cheerleading and gymnastics school tweets about local cheer events and gymnastics competitions.     

In addition, there was a great article in the Wall Street Journal yesterday entitled A Start-Up’s Tale, Tweet by Tweet.  This article describes how a start-up company propelled itself off the ground by using Twitter as a tool.