LONDON—Last month, citizenrobert was enjoying “the pleasures of slow cooking.” The month before, he was battling with “brutal” winds in Suffolk.

Citizenrobert, it turns out, is Robert Phillips, the U.K. chief executive of public-relations firm Edelman, and he has been using the microblogging site Twitter to share his views and anecdotes with his 815 “followers.”

Mr. Phillips is part of the small but growing community of senior executives using the short-messaging site as a business tool to engage with customers.

Twitter itself is growing fast. The company doesn’t report figures itself but estimates put the number of users at four million to six million. In the U.K., traffic has grown to October’s 3.3 million unique visitors per month this year, estimates say, from just 121,000 unique visits per month in October the prior year.

Around 80% of the 30 major brands, including retailers and auto makers, use Twitter for daily tweets, market-researcher Forrester Research found.

The study also said retailers are the ones with the biggest number of “followers,” while auto makers follow best practices, like updating their feeds constantly, more consistently.

* How to Tweet: Tips to Light Up Your Brand

British fashion retailer Topshop, a unit of Arcadia, has more than 45,000 “followers” and uses its Twitter feed to interact with shoppers. “We’ve got that Friday feeling … none of us can sit still,” it wrote recently. Though there are exceptions. German car maker Opel GmbH, General Motor’s cash-strapped unit, stopped updating its Twitter feed in September. Admittedly the company has much bigger problems to worry about.

While most senior executives still regard Twitter as a diversion from work, some have been quick to incorporate “tweeting” as part of their extremely busy routines.

Paul Johns, vice president of Complinet, a multinational provider of risk and compliance information for financial services, says using Twitter has turned into real revenue for his company.

Mr, Johns, who is 40 years old, didn’t understand Twitter as first. “Then somebody told me it’s basically microblogging. I instantly saw a very good business opportunity.”

Mr. Johns usually tweets three or four times a day in between flights or meetings, using his Blackberry.

Mr. Johns says his company is able to generate cash through Twitter by putting up a link to a trial system with a unique URL, so that way the firm knows which deals come from Twitter.

That doesn’t come naturally to many senior executives. Loic Le Meur, founder of video-blogging company Seesmic, says senior managers find it really difficult to forget their executive roles and just be natural.

“Companies shouldn’t think too much when using Twitter,” Mr. Le Meur says. “It’s not like as if they are writing a press release. Just take your Blackberry and share something quick.”

But at the same time, public-relations experts recommend that companies wanting to connect with consumers come up with the right strategy, so that all people tweeting for the company have some kind of cohesion.

Nate Elliot, principal analyst at Forrester Research, said that when considering engaging in social media, the corporate world should set out clear objectives of what it wants to accomplish.

“Do companies want to get the message out and talk directly to consumers and fans? Or do they want to get new ideas to improve their business? These are so many things you can do as a business,” Mr. Elliot said.

“As a company you have to ask yourself: what are our objectives and would Twitter help us? Who is the right person to manage our Twitter account?” Mr. Elliot said.

Senior executives aren’t always the right people to manage Twitter accounts, Mr. Elliott added.

In a recent study of how companies should represent themselves on Twitter, Mr. Elliott says companies should find the right department to manage each of their accounts.

“In many companies, marketing owns the entire organization’s Twitter activity. But many of the objectives you can pursue through Twitter are better suited to other parts of the organization,” he says.

Corporations should make sure that each Twitter account serves a particular purpose, from informing local consumers of particular offers in their area to announcing major decisions or new products.

“Honda Motor has several dealerships tweeting locally, but no easy way for consumers to find specific streams for their areas— and no obvious objective for what each local dealership should be tweeting,” he said.

A spokeswoman for Honda Motor Co. said the company was using Twitter as another tool to talk to customers and that it allowed more freedom for its franchised-dealers to tweet “within reason, whatever they want.” She also said Honda is putting together a “system” to help their dealers tweet better.

Burger King Corp. and Exxon Mobil Corp. have been victims of so-called brand-jacking. In July, a person with no links to Exxon Mobil registered the name “ExxonMobileCorp” and started tweeting on behalf of the corporation. Exxon Mobil contacted Twitter to request the person stopped tweeting under the company’s name, a spokesman said. Ever since that incident, Exxon Mobil has an official Twitter page.

In a separate incident in late 2008, an Indiana University student pretended to be the manager of the Burger King account on Twitter. The student even managed to build a significant amount of followers. A spokesman for Burger King wasn’t immediately able to comment.

To turn all of this into revenue, Twitter is also designing plans to launch corporate accounts in an effort to start generating revenue. The microblogging site has said it will offer tools aimed at improving companies’ tweeting skills by the end of this year.

Experts have warned, however, that not all managers will be willing to pay for a service offered by a relatively new and untested site. Pundits are also unclear as to how exactly the company is planning to generate cash. Twitter didn’t respond to an email requesting more details on its plans.

Write to Javier Espinoza at javier.espinoza@wsj.com

For original article here

Global Assist offer Twitter marketing services for your business.  For more information call us at 888-828-9826 or click on the image below.

But having a good product and a good service fortified with good information will never put you out of business, but it needs something to make it grow faster as far as profits are concerned. A few number of salons and spas have found this very effective — the solution is through Social Media. Everybody can create social media profiles for free, and this is a very effective way in promoting businesses, indirectly of course. The factor that will make social media work for you is through building relationships. Persistence is highly required and great sense of responsibility in responding to every member of your social media network. Building relationships has no haircuts… I mean short cuts.

Based on recent studies, online media which includes social media networking leads the list of the top media that creates a huge impact on all demographics. Young people and adults alike are into social media networking, like Twitter or Facebook. They belong to various age groups with different interests and goals and you should find your own niche that you know who will be interested in your products or services.

According to C. Lee Smith, president and CEO of Ad-ology Research, younger crowds want the latest styles through popular online sites where their friends go and that makes social media sites the main target, therefore, salons and spas need to get active on social media sites since these sites attract young potential customers which can help your business go viral! According to some reliable findings as well, a great number of salon and spa appointments are already made on these social media sites.

We can therefore conclude that in trying to win more customers for your salon or spa business, you can show social media enthusiasts that you can extend your services for free by providing valuable information about your product and service. This how you win the trust and confidence of people in your own niche. As you strengthen your relationships with them, you can also offer exclusive discounts to them. Of course you don’t have to directly “sell” your product or service to them because that could leave a bad impression on your audience. A subtle way to do this is to know what their salon and spa needs are and offer some few tips on how you can help them with their salon and spa concerns. Using this selflessly will have you getting their trust and they can share your links to others lovingly that could go viral eventually.

In any business, quality customer service is very important. You can use social media as a tool for you to assist your customers in every way you can. The advantage of social media is that it is free, but very powerful because it is word-of-mouth advertising that works into play in these social media sites. It is then important to maintain a good reputation and you will have many people “following” your tweets and posts and the like in no time.

Here is an idea of what you can promote, create a short video about your business and post it on Twitter, Facebook, etc. to tell your prospective customers what you can do.  Or send them coupons and special offers to entice them to try out your business.  For more ideas on how to promote your business, call Global Assist at 1.888.828.9826

Click here to view the embedded video.

However, a little boost from doing social media marketing does not hurt.  It is basically an additional tool that can be exploited to increase social ties with your existing client relationships. Excellent people skills are valuable in person as well as online.  To go hand in hand with establishing fruitful relationships with your customers, you must open your mind with social media marketing. It will increase visibility for you and your practice. Here are some little tips that can help you cope up with this marketing tool.

1.      While a number of people are aware of the worth of being visible online, most dentists are still working up the idea of social media. The query of whether to join or not is lurking in their minds. Some even have complete aversion over it which is a bit disappointing considering the promises that this marketing tool can entail. This tool magnifies the power of yellow pages to attract new customers. For example compare two existing websites offering the same type of service and skills. One is joining social network sites and the other does not. You will observe that while the other is waiting for emails and calls from prospective clients the other is gaining popularity on blog sites. Making them and their services known to more people, thereby gaining new customers every day.

2.      There are a lot of social media networks available in the market. The best way to be found is to join the ones with wider networks. Join in using your dentist URL page as username or your clinic’s name. If you have a logo, put it as your profile picture to be recognized.

3.      Take care of sharing your information in online networks with the same rationale as you would any other social institution.  In other words, don’t blog about something that will hurt your profession.

4.      Communicate with your network as you would with a patient or a friend. Just as we all do in person, we would also like to be treated well online. Comment on other people’s blogs or messages, making them aware that you exist. The good thing about that is every time you make a comment your created username and picture will appear, hence your URL and logo as mentioned above. It will be free advertising if you do that. But be always sensitive on the comment and always leave it on professional level.

5.      Use keywords on your blogs or messages in social network that will optimize your search engine. Hence, leading them to your own website.

Social media is not an end-all marketing answer for all.  Start from inside, review the quality of your client care and communication relationship.  Then decide whether it is a normal thing for you to partake in social media sites. Remember that whatever medium of marketing you used the most important part is how you care for your clients and how show them your love of work.

Like all types of business, the health care providers are not immune to the needs of utilizing proficient marketing tools. Chiropractors for example, the world has to know their skills to treat and prevent illness on the musculoskeletal system of our body. But, without the proper marketing placement their well-kept knowledge will only be spread through word of mouth. Although this may still be effective, and a well-known classic approach to marketing, it is not enough for this era of cyber competition. To go head to head with competitors, these chiropractors should be aggressive in employing all the possible marketing tools available to them.

One such tool can be found on social media marketing. By using your personal networks such as Twitter, Friendster, Facebook, Multiply, You Tube, Bloggs, Flickr and countless others, you can transform them into personal business sites to connect more to with your existing customers and opening doors and windows to new ones.

Many people view chiropractic as a substitute to medicine, something most chiropractors detest. With these in mind chiropractors can correct the misconception using social media marketing.

So whether you are “straights” who adheres to chiropractics emphasis on vitals and innate intelligence and spinal adjustment or one of the “mixers” who are open to alternative techniques such as exercises, massage, acupuncture and  nutritional supplements marketing your services in the internet is no longer just about selling and using the right value propositions. Your clients need to know more. You need to interact more to gain their trust.

Do you need to know more about the potentials of social media marketing? Listed below are some of the benefits gained from joining these sites to further your chiropractics career.

1. You can blog about your service, chiropractic tradition, correct people’s misconception, share news of successful patients, educate people on the practice of this profession, engage people in the science and philosophy .  If blogging is not your forte; you can send short messages or updates.
2. Upon joining social networks and adding friends, you increase your network not just to first and second party association but to a web of networks connecting communities.
3. You get to know people who are interested in your field of health service.
4. You get to answer immediate questions and queries without setting up an elaborate appointment, thereby gaining trust from your followers.
5. You can receive up to the minute comments from your existing clients. By hearing their opinion you are able to improve your services. Giving customer feedback a new and a lot easier medium for expression.
6. Promoting your clinic without paying for it.
7. Promote your websites by leading your followers to it, by using search engine optimization.
8. It is conversational. Social media marketing is not fully controlled by the organization, it allows for user participation and dialogue.

If you want to know more, but don’t know how to get started.  Give us a call, and see how a social media marketing assistant can get your business more exposure and more clients. 1-888-828-9826.

We all know that for you to be able to expand your business to higher grounds you will need to have that extra cash or capital to spend. This is where your resourcefulness comes in as a businessman.  Venturing to outsource some jobs maybe the answer to your cash flow and needed capital.  With the accessibility of the internet, outsourcing jobs became a greater option especially for the non-vital business processes that can be done even without the comfort of the four walls of your office.

To bring down overhead expenses and gain more capital you will need to cut down a couple of expenses. Now here is where outsourcing comes in very handy, hiring employees offshore can lower a significant amount on your operational expense. Even big businesses know this that is why they continue to outsource jobs to other countries. Imagine how much you can save if you can cut down at least 30 to 40 percent of your operational expense. Look at it this way, the local cost of an employee who is offshore ranges from $6- $10 per hour or it could even be lower and compare it from an onshore employee that charges $12- $20 per hour. Off course you also have to consider the money you will save from employee’s benefits, taxes, office space and equipments, electricity and other factors. These factors normally are inclusive when hiring offshore companies.

If you are worried about monitoring and quality of service from outsourcing jobs, well don’t be. There are a lot of ways to monitor employees offshore. Communication is not a problem anymore because of e-mails, chat programs, VOIP and some programs are even created to view what your employees are doing. This is all accessible with a couple of clicks from your own computer. Plus most employees offshore are easily trained to handle the job properly not to mention they are polite and hardworking. They can also assure you of great customer service skills that your customers can take advantage off. Everybody knows that a great customer service is the secret on why customers will keep on coming back to transact business with you. Another advantage is the ability to hire more employees that you can afford to hire to give legendary customer service for faster business transaction and more opportunity for growth.

Bottom line is there are significant advantages when you outsource your business and a good businessman would take advantage of these opportunities especially if it can assure growth and expansion for your business. With the recession ongoing getting more for less is what you need.  Beat your competitors by expanding and offering more by paying less.