Leveraging technology: Tweeting your way to success

Leveraging technology: Tweeting your way to success

By Schellene Clendenin, GoForth Institute

September 10, 2010

 
Rivers Corbett wouldn't let a day go by without his Blackberry. So much so that if he lost it, he would have to find a replacement the same day. How else would he check his emails, update his Twitter, visit Facebook and send off a blog?
 
"I'd be lost without it," he said.
 
He feels small business owners seeking new and interesting ways to market their products would do well to utilize technology in all its forms, including internet and social networking. "Opportunity is everywhere," writes Corbett in his online blog.
 
Corbett holds a masters in business administration, is an author, entrepreneur, speaker, CEO and is a Founder of The Entrepreneurs Summit. And he's a self confessed technology junky who loves his work.
 
It's critical to learn technology and the ways in which business can be improved with its use, he said. Technology provides a more efficient and fun method by which business can grow. "This under appreciated technology should be a major part of a growth plan," he said.
 
For example - folks that are subscribed to receive his regular Tweets don't have time to read a full email. Instead, they are more often interested in the headlines. "The people I Tweet with take a keen interest in the success of my business."
 
Still, like anything else in business, technology must be embraced as a benefit.
 
That's why having a Web site is such an important marketing tool said Kyle Rumba, owner for nearly a decade of Digital Fusion Studios in Surrey BC.
 
He added that businesses without a Web site are already at a disadvantage, because their competition already has one. Just like print and audio advertising, a Web site can provide a dynamic brochure for the company and can also offer customers and clients interaction with the equivalent of a salesperson 24 hours-per-day, 7 days-per-week.
 
And you get what you pay for, he says. If you pay your 15 year old cousin to do your Web site, it won't look as professional as a Web site done by a company with experience, one that can integrate video, graphics and text into an organized whole.
 
Web sites also offer owners an opportunity to present themselves as experts in their fields.
 
Canada Business states that "E-business, the use of the Internet as a business tool, is a major component of growth."
 
Rumba said he chose to work with small business instead of larger corporations because he is an entrepreneur and he understands many of the challenges they face.

Canada Business goes on to point out that the Internet can be used to do everything from processing payments to communicating with customers an offers enormous potential for growth. 
 

Schellene Clendenin is a freelance journalist who specializes in covering the small and medium-sized enterprise scene.  She lives in Portland, Oregon with her scottish terrier, Angus. Contact Schellene: mighty_impatient@hotmail.com

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