Dianne Campbell wrote about using Twitter for her small business, Rum Cake Delight. She learned that Twitter is a microblogging platform that allows her to connect with customers, followers, and potential clients. Campbell explored how to set up a Twitter account for her business and customize it with her company biography and photos. Using Twitter, she can engage customers, share baking tips and photos, and gain marketing insights. Campbell hopes Twitter will increase traffic to her website and sales over time as she builds her follower base and learns to use the tool effectively.

1. Social Media and Me – Twitter
By Dianne Campbell

2. Introduction
My personal learning assignment is about Social
Media and Me. (Rum Cake Delight)
I've chosen Twitter as my social media tool to
work with my business because it's a good
marketing tool.
Twitter was created in March 2006 by Jack
Dorsey, Evan Williams, Biz Stone and Noah Glass
and by July 2006, the site was launched. By
2012, Twitter had gained 500 million registered
users. Twitter is one of the ten most-visited
websites.

3. Twitter is a micro blogging servicing network that
will allow me to connect with family, friends, existing
customers and future potential customers.
I can type up to 140 characters in length in one
message and it's referred to as tweet.
Twitter allows my tweet to be seen by several
people, individual or companies that I follows, those
that follow my account and people that follow them
as well.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter)

5. My Business
Rum Cake Delight was founded many years ago but
only officially launched 4 years ago to the public.
I began baking in my early teens and my passion for
baking continued to grow over the years. It started
from baking delicious rum cake for family and
friends for special occasions and soon after friends
and family was coming to her for their many baking
needs.
Rum Cake Delight grew out of this passion for
baking and providing customers with delightful
treats.
(www.rumcakedelight.com)

7. My Learning Goals
1)
I would like to learn more about how to use
Twitter effectively and to the best advantage of
my business. I would learn to setup an account
and attract followers.
2)
I would like to understand the benefits my
business can gain with the help of Twitter and
other social media sites.
3)
It would be great to see how many users I could
get to follow me once I've learned how to use
Twitter and other social media sites after this
course.

8. How to setup a Twitter Account
Select an email address to associate with the Twitter
account: example, Twitter@rumcakedelight.com.
Snag the user name and confirm my account. Enter my
company name, email address, password and sign up for
Twitter.
Select the user name and create account. Make sure to
confirm your email address. Twitter will then ask me to
follow five people/business. I'll search and follow a
company that associates with my business.

9. After selecting the five companies or people I want to
follow, Twitter will move me to the next step.
Select the categories that I feel will link to my business.
Preview the tweets of the companies I choose to follow
and import contacts from my Gmail or Yahoo accounts.
Customize my profile with my business biography and
upload a photo from my computer file. Make my first
tweet and hit compose.
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8UiyEina6j4)

10. The benefits my business can
gain with Twitter
I found out that my business can gain a lot from Twitter
and other social media sites. Here's an interesting
example, I can have my website in the form of a
landing page and have a blog linked to it, and this can
help drive social media sharing through
Twitter, Facebook and others.
With Twitter, I can engage my customers in a whole
new way and form a personal bond with them by
allowing them to leave feedback about my products
and services. This will allow me to satisfy my
customers with what I have to offer which can drive
traffic and in turn promotes my business.

11. I can share before and after photos and videos of my
products. I can also provide helpful tips on how to
preserve a rum cake for up to 12 months.
This will help in creating the bond with my customers and
letting them be a part of my business.
The aim of creating a bond with my customers and
attracting traffic is to increase sales and getting positive
feedback about my company.
Another benefit to using Twitter and other social media is
that I can perform a marketing research and have people
offering reviews about my business. Also, I can use
Twitter to promote a business event.
(http://www.shoutmeloud.com/benefits-of-using-socialmedia-for-business.html)
(http://www.chrisbrogan.com/50-ideas-on-using-twitterfor-business/

12. How many users could I get to
follow me?
I'm very curious to see how many users I could get to
follow my business, I currently have 37 followers and hope
to increase it. During my research, I realized it's not that
difficult to get people or company to follow my business.
As long as I'm tweeting on a daily basis and following my
customers or other companies with similar interest, the
traffic will increase over a period of time.
I’ve found out talking to my followers about their interest
and not just about my business helps me to connect in a
humanly way with my customers.

13. Twitter is now one of the ten most-visited
websites, and has been described as "the SMS
of the Internet.
I would love to take advantage of this great free
advertising tool and use it to increase business
within my business.
By Tweeting helpful baking tips and interesting
topics, this will engage my customers and
followers and will indeed increase traffic to my
website and eventually increase sales.
(http://www.chrisbrogan.com/50-ideas-on-usingtwitter-for-business/)
(http://www.shoutmeloud.com/benefits-of-usingsocial-media-for-business.html)

14. Conclusion
In conclusion, I found out that Twitter is a great advertising tool for my
small business and it’s one of the most visited websites. Twitter is a
micro blogging servicing network which will allow me to connect with
family, friends, customers and even potential customers. I can tweet
up to 140 characters in one message.
I’ve also learnt how to create a new Twitter account for my business
which is not as difficult as I originally thought, the step by step setup
was very straight forward. I can customize my profile with my business
biography as well as upload photos of my products for my customers to
see.

15. My business can gain a lot from being on Twitter and other social
media site such as Facebook, I can link them both together which could
drive more traffic to my website and it’s all free which is wonderful for a
small business. Another benefit for my business as a Twitter user is
that I can keep my followers engaged on a daily basis and get to know
them and what they’re interested in.
During my research, I found out that I could use Twitter as a marketing
research tool as well by sending out surveys and allows me to gain
feedback about my business and how I can further satisfy their needs.
I feel with Twitter being so instantaneous and worldwide, I would want
to make sure I offer excellent customer service and products to prevent
any bad publicity on my business.
I must admit that I’m not a big social media user but with today’s
technology, you have to get into the game of using social media to
push your business.
Overall, this was a great personal learning experience for me on Twitter
and how I can better use it to the benefit of my company.

16. References
Rum Cake Delight. (n.d.). Citing Website. My business. Retrieved February 28, 2014 from
www.rumcakedelight.com
Happily Organized. (n.d.). Citing Website. How to create a Twitter account for your small
business. Retrieved February 25, 2014 from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8UiyEina6j4
Harsh Agrawal. (n.d.). Citing Website. Benefits of using Social media for Business. Retrieved
February 28, 2014 from
http://www.shoutmeloud.com/benefits-of-using-social-media-for-business.html
Chris Brogran. (August 20, 2008). Citing Website. 50 Ideas of using Twitter for business.
Retrieved March 3, 2014 from http://www.chrisbrogan.com/50-ideas-on-using-twitter-forbusiness/
Wekipedia. (n.d.). Citing Website. Twitter. Retrieved March 3, 2014 from
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter