Small businesses turn attention to promoted tweets

More often now, we're seeing tweets on our mini feeds from accounts we don't follow, promoting a business' product or service. These are promoted tweets, which more companies are beginning to adopt in their small business marketing strategies.

Anita Campbell, founder of Small Business Trends, recently announced that Twitter begun offering Targeted Tweets. Despite the appeal that might come from paying a social media company that has millions of users, Campbell suggested that ads can be hit or miss for small business owners.

There are two new advertising options for business owners who are interested in advertising their business on Twitter. The two new options are promoted accounts, which study current followers to look for people with similar interest and pairs that account to its Who to Follow Section, and promoted products, which allow Twitter to monitor accounts for engagement and promote the best tweets to users.

Considering the new trend isn't a sure thing to expand a company's business or improve its marketing efforts, Campbell recommended a few things to consider.

Having an existing Twitter strategy is key in making sure money isn't wasted on promoted tweets. Before opening an account to pay for promoted Tweets, a solid strategy should be put in place to make sure marketing on the social media site will be beneficial to the company.

Business owners should also consider doing their own marketing before paying a social media site to do it for them. Studying marketing trends and the most effective methods of advertising online and through other mediums could prove to be much more helpful than immediately paying a company.

Campbell also recommends that small businesses should be recognizable. Connecting with other small businesses through Twitter could be helpful in making sure a company reaches a larger audience than it has in the past. Having your face or logo on a product or service can be a significant attraction to followers.

Tracking the effectiveness of ads can also be a great way to tell what marketing techniques work and which ones aren't producing the best outcomes. Using Google Analytics, which is a free service, could allow business owners to examine their marketing efforts to see what's working and what's not.

Business 2 Community recently suggested mobile marketing to provide security and simplicity for consumers who are using their mobile devices more often recently.