Business enterprises turn on to Twitter

Microblogging site Twitter is helping small UK businesses communicate like never before. O2 recently surveyed 500 small businesses and found 17% were using Twitter with more than a quarter signing up within the week the poll was conducted.

Using these figures O2 estimates that over 700,000 small businesses could now be using Twitter, sending nearly three million tweets a day.

Twitter has been providing UK small businesses with a range of benefits, including cost cutting, marketing and recruiting new staff. This has meant nearly a third of the small businesses surveyed have saved up to £1,000, while one in ten saved up to £5,000. Meanwhile over a quarter found that staying in touch with other small businesses helped boost their confidence, while one in ten of them has up to 100 followers.

Simon Devonshire, head of small Business marketing at O2, said: “The way small businesses are using Twitter is a great example of how the community is embracing new technologies in order to adapt and survive in the current economic climate. The increase in small businesses using converged devices such as the iPhone and BlackBerry smartphones combined with the simplicity of Twitter represents a fantastic opportunity for businesses to further raise their profiles and increase efficiency.”

The 02 findings echo research conducted by Gartner, which found the businesses were successfully using Twitter in four ways:

Direct: Twitter can be used as a marketing or public relations channel, much like corporate blogs. At a minimum, companies should register their major brand names.

Indirect: Company employees are using Twitter to enhance their personal and company reputations. It can raise profiles of individuals and the organisations they work for.

Internal: Employees are using Twitter to communicate what they are doing and what ideas occur to them. That said, Gartner warned there was no guarantee of security.

Inbound signalling: Twitter streams and search tools can provide information about what customers and competitors are saying about the company.