I love Twitter! Nine months ago I hardly knew what it was and now, I cannot get enough of it! Twitter has helped me to connect with my customers. I have begun to receive special offers from my suppliers only available to fellow Tweetnics! I am even communicating with competitors and learning from them. All this has been made possible with this new social media site that is here to stay. If you are slow getting into this fantastic new way of communicating, as I was, then please read on… I would like to introduce you to three ways it has helped my promotional gifts business.

1. Interaction with competitors: When I set up my company twelve years ago, speaking to the competition rarely happened. Things were much more secretive. Perhaps you would see a competitor at a trade show or product launch, exchange a polite hello and be on your way. The Internet and especially Twitter has changed all that. Now I read many of their tweets daily. They ask for advice from me and I ask for their advice. Some of their tweets have introduced me to new trends long before they become trends. When one competitor was not sure about the way a logo should be printed on one of his customer’s sample mugs, he asked his Twitter friends for their opinions and we helped him to improve the design keeping his customer happy. I am sure now that he would do the same for me.

Of course, at the end of the day we are all still in competition with each other but we also share a common interest and our daily chat has offered a lot of benefits to us and our customers as well. I even received a nice order from one competitor! She had been let down by their normal suppliers. She tweeted whether anyone knew of another supplier who could supply her so she would not have let her customer down. I wrote back, “Yes, me!” Her order was saved and the customer was very happy with their promotional products.

Recently I have really enjoyed writing articles about the promotional gift industry for articles distribution website Articlesbase.com as have several of my competitors. I have found it very rewarding hearing their comments on my articles which are fed directly onto my Twitter page by Articlesbase for all to read! I must admit that I have found many of their articles very informative as well.

2. Interaction with Suppliers: There are a good number of my suppliers that are now regulars on Twitter. Many have been there substantially longer than I have so I have learned a lot from their experience. Most of my suppliers are now offering weekly and even daily specials for their customers following them on Twitter. There was a time in the not too distant past when they would have had to send these specials through the post at significant expense or fill up my inbox with e-shots that were often regarded as spam. Now it is up to me to log into Twitter to see what specials they have on offer. I can either ignore it or click on to their site. I can check their offers when I want to and not have to download some large picture into my inbox at the busiest time of the day. Unfortunately some of my non-tweeting suppliers still insist on doing so.

What I like most is that my customers are benefitting from this as well. I can offer my customers “following” me on Twitter the same excellent deals extended to me by my manufacturer suppliers. And, I can do it within minutes of receiving my suppliers tweet. Now that is service! I have learned from my suppliers how well these daily or weekly advertisements work and I now do it myself as I am sure you will begin to do as well.

3. Interaction with Customers: At the end of the day, your customers are what it is all about and Twitter can help you to converse with them. You no longer need to send large e-shots with large slow downloading pictures. You do not need to hassle them with phone calls hoping they will be interested in this or that. They now will know where to find you when they need you. Some may even learn that they share common interests with you and begin to converse with you on Twitter on a regular basis. I may be the Managing Director of a promotional gifts company but I am also interested in music, karate, cookery, travel, languages and German literature. I have found that many of my customers, suppliers and competitors have one or a few of the same interests and I have found it a lot of fun getting to know them! My employees have also begun to converse with their customers on their Twitter pages.

The majority of people have not even begun to explore Twitter. You have obviously decided to look into the advantages it offers you in business. Even if you have not signed up for your free Twitter account, you can still follow people and business that interest you. Simply go to their Twitter pages and have a look. When you are ready to sign up for an account, it is as easy as supplying your email address and a password which you choose. Good luck with it and I hope to hear from you in Twitter land!

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