Small businesses look to Twitter for marketing help

Twitter has increased its user numbers significantly in the past few years, with hundreds of millions tweeting their thoughts daily in 140 characters or less. A new trend has recently been introduced to the social media platform that is being used by small businesses to expand their reach to consumers.

According to Bloomberg, the owners of Tad Hughes Custom Fit Studios, which tailors to bike riders' needs in Houston, experimented with Twitter advertising and found that it could be hit or miss. The company was offered $100 for free advertisement on Twitter, and after contributing $54 of their own money, the owners decided to discontinue because of a lack of attention being paid to the tweets. The company experienced a minor gain of a dozen new followers who weren't from the Texas area.

Twitter gives businesses the option to purchase "promoted tweets" in order to increase their presence across the globe. Some companies have had success with using Twitter ads while others regret spending money on the small business marketing tool.

Bloomberg reported a research firm's statistics that Twitter had an estimated $134 million in U.S. ad revenue last year, which was surpassed by Google and Facebook. The short message social media site has been running the advertising program for three months and recently hired a new vice president for global online sales who has experience focusing on mid-sized small businesses at Google.

Although there has been reports of the ads not working, other reports are showing optimism for business owners looking to increase revenue through Twitter.  P.F. Chang's China Bistro is one of a handful of advertisers who reported positive numbers after purchasing a $25,000 Twitter ad. The restaurant saw a return on investment and exceeded expectations.

Internet entrepreneur James Debono recently suggested doing extensive research before jumping into Twitter and other social media sites for marketing a small business in order for the company to gain maximum benefits from the site.