Yahoo! Small Business is on Twitter

Why We’re There

Almost three weeks ago, Yahoo! Small Business officially entered the Twitterverse. It’s a pretty exciting place to be, and lots of individuals and companies are leveraging its unique simplicity to share information in new ways. Yahoo!, as a company, has been using Twitter to engage with users for some time now, and so when we in Yahoo! Small Business asked ourselves, “Should we be on Twitter?” the answer was a resounding YES. Why, you ask? For the simple reason that thousands and thousands of our customers and partners are already there.

If you’d like to follow us, we’re @YSmallBusiness, and here are just a few of the ways we plan on using Twitter:

• Listening. We want to better understand what excites, frustrates, and drives our customers and what we can do to better serve them.

• Sharing best practices. We’ll be drawing from the successes of our customers, and the expertise of our developers, partners, and employees. Don’t hesitate to let us know what kinds of tips and advice you feel you need.

• Providing updates. We’ll share the latest from Yahoo! Small Business, from product updates to events and conferences.

• And yes, bragging. We want the world to know how incredible our customers are. Yahoo!’s customers are inspiring entrepreneurs who sell important, fascinating, and fun products and services. We can’t wait to share some of their stories.

Unfortunately, Twitter simply cannot do everything. So for customer support inquiries, we’ll continue to direct you to our contact us form for specific questions, and the System Status page for system updates.

What We’ve Learned So Far

Without getting into too much detail, here are four things we’ve learned (or at least have a new appreciation for) after three weeks:

1. Social media conversations are exciting and…different. For years and years, marketers controlled the message and customers listened. Now? We are one voice among many equal voices. We knew this would be the case, but there’s no substitute for experiencing this change directly.

2. Saying things on Twitter is one thing, but getting people to listen is an equally important element of success. It takes thought and planning to build a large and relevant audience.

3. There are some useful tools out there that help you extend the capabilities of Twitter and measure your impact. A few of our favorites so far are TweetDeck, Archivist, MyTweeple, and Twitalyzer. Additional suggestions of Twitter add-ons are always welcome!

4. Don’t just jump in with social media without a plan, but don’t over plan either. Make sure you think before you begin tweeting. Start with thinking about your customers. Are they active in social media? If so, where? Second, think about what you hope to accomplish with social media. As Forrester and others recommend, deciding which technology to use comes after you’ve thought about customer and objective. But don’t wait too long either. You’ll never be able to plan for every scenario that might arise.

So please stay tuned (and follow us!) for more developments on Twitter.

Eric Gilbert
Yahoo! Small Business
Follow @YSmallBusiness on Twitter