When maintaining your website, there will come a point in time when you won’t be able to ignore the Twitter phenomenon any longer.  You might have heard from a friend about what a wonderful tool it is, or you might just think it’s a waste of time.  The truth is, it is a very cheep (free), easy way to network with others in your industry, as well as reach potential new customers who share your interests.

Don’t expect to hop on Twitter, add a bunch of random people, and see customers flock to your website.  As it has been said many times, it is far better to be following 100 legitimate people that you have hand-selected as opposed to thousands of random people who won’t care at all about your Tweets.

With that said, your introduction to Twitter should go something like this:

Run some searches on subjects in your industry.  In my case, I would look for “logo design” or “CSS styles.”  A little digging will yield some popular bloggers and “Tweeters” who regularly speak about the subject you’re searching for.  Upon following these people, Twitter will help you find others who are similar to them.  Soon, you’ll be following a small crowd of people who all share the same interest that you do.

As they tweet, you be regularly presented with valuable resources such as blog posts, free software links, etc.  As you tweet about resources like this yourself, you will gain followers who realize that you have something important to say.  During this back-and-forth information exchange, you will gradually build exposure to your Twitter profile, effectively sending legitimate traffic to your website.

As a designer, I often get asked “how will having a website bring more customers to my company?”  The answer is generally how much effort you decide to put into your website Buying a cheap “Do-It-Yourself” website like this one will not cut it.  With the right kind of content, presentation, and graphics, your new website will be more effective than any newspaper ad or billboard.

A website is definitely the most valuable form of advertising you can do for your business.  For only $90 a year, you can have permanent exposure to an unlimited amount of possible customers.  Distance is no longer an issue, and you don’t have to worry about the time of day – Visitors can access your company information whenever and wherever they would like.  You can easily narrow down the scope of customers by using keywords and location targeting, to have a better chance at successful conversions.

Here is a partial list of website benefits for your business:

• Reach a completely new market
• Easily provide visitors with fresh information
• Sell your product with automatic billing
• Post photos / information
• Offer an easy way to stay in touch with visitors
• Network with other websites in your industry