You’re probably exhasted with the ever-growing list of different social media outlets, but there are a few I’ve found to be absolutely essential for me as a small business owner. You all already know about my love affair with Facebook (parts 1 and 2), but it’s time to tell you about my other best friend: Twitter. It’s become one of my most valuable tools when it comes to building my business among other vendors, and here are a few reasons why you should start Tweeting:

1) You’ll get to interact with wedding professionals from California to London. If I’m ever in Seattle, I know I can call Lindsey from I Really Like Weddings to hang out. If I ever find myself in Bristol, UK, I can probably bet that Emma Woodhouse, the Wedding Reporter, would meet me for a cuppa. When I was in Orlando this past December, Casie from Casie Photographics and I met up for dinner. Twitter’s simple design allows for easy interactions with people you’ve never met instead of that awkward Facebook friend request from someone you’ve never spoken with.

2) It’s SIMPLE. I’ll admit it- the first time I heard anyone talk about Twitter I thought it was a silly social media platform that was obnoxious and excessive; couldn’t we all just be happy with Facebook? But I was wrong. Facebook, while it has it’s incredible value, sort of limits how many things you can reasonably post in one day. If I were to post to my Facebook as often as I Tweet, your newsfeed would be a black hole of nothing but my status updates. On Twitter? It’s completely normal to Tweet 50+ times a day. Because Tweets are limited to 140 characters, you really have to cut down on what you write. No one posts long-winded melancholy soliloquies, lamenting over their latest break-up; instead they post links to interesting articles, a blog post they wrote, and fun quips and queries.

3) It’s fun! Because of the freeflowing style of Twitter interactions, I get to converse with people I’d never meet otherwise, chatting about anything and everything under the sun. I can share photos of Lily, ask for help finding a certain type of vendor, or vent about how much I can’t stand drivers who speed to the end of a merge lane and cut in at the last possible moment. I laugh so many times a day because of quirky/clever/cheeky things people post on Twitter that may not be received as well on Facebook.

4) It’s incredibly valuable. I’ve been thinking of planning a boudoir marathon day for some of my brides so when I found myself in need of a hair and make-up artist, I immediately headed to Twitter and Tweeted “I need a recommendation for a hair + MUA in the DC area- any names?” This Tweet was ReTweeted (RT) several times by a some of my followers and within a couple of hours I had several names to choose from. There’s a certain sense of camaraderie among Twitter users- we want to help each other out. Facebook, while it definitely has a place for this, isn’t quite as competition-friendly.

5) If nothing else, it helps garner attention for your company. If you’re a local small business, chances are you need all the free advertising you can get. Twitter is a no-strings-attached way to boast about what you’re doing. Pure Pasty in Vienna is a great example- Mike Burgess (the owner) Tweets every time they bring in a new flavor of pasty. And without fail, it gets my stomach grumbling every time I read one of those Tweets. Words like “tomato basil pasties with flaky crust” make my mouth water, and if it weren’t for my workload I’d get in my car and drive to Vienna EVERY TIME.

So now that you know exactly how valuable Twitter is,visit again tomorrow for some ideas on HOW to use Twitter to expand your visibility. But first? Go create yourself an account! It’s easy, free, and you should have done it yesterday. 🙂

Happy Wednesday!