Ten Ways To Decide If Your Business Should Tweetby David Berkowitz , Tuesday, June 9, 2009During a late lunch (for me) or an early dinner (for my wife's grandparents) atApplebee's in Reading, Pa., I was distracted from figuring out how to eat myriblets when I heard the conversation inevitably turn to Twitter.It wasn't the most senior members at the table who were interested in tweeting --thank goodness, as that would have made me fall off my chair faster than anApplebee's Top Shelf Long Island Iced Tea. Instead, my uncle, an optometrist, hadbeen hearing about Twitter and wondered if he should tweet professionally.When I answered Uncle Glenn, I brought up a number of factors that he shouldconsider when evaluating the service. I also compared his situation to that ofJeff, my father-in-law, a plastic surgeon in Dallas. Glenn and Jeff have severalthings in common: small businesses in healthcare targeting older-skewing customerswho aren't particularly tech-savvy. There are key differences though, and thoseare described below.Here are ten factors Glenn, Jeff, or anyone else should consider when decidingwhether to tweet:Domain squatting: Is there any value for you to register your business name oreven real name (if you own your business or are the face of it) as a Twitter username? I covered this recently, and there are a number of reasons why you should,even if you don't plan to actively use it.Meet David Berkowitz at OMMA Video NYC!David Berkowitz will be there participating in a panel on "Mobile Me " on June 16at 3:45 PM. Top minds, hot topics, bold ideas - all in one conference.Register today and save.Brand mentions: Is anyone talking about your actual business already? For a smallbusiness, this isn't as likely, but you absolutely must check. For this search andothers discussed here, use Twitter Search at search.twitter.com. While Twitteroffers search functionality on its own site, it's only available to registeredusers, and Twitter Search is more robust.Topical mentions: Are people on Twitter discussing topics relevant to yourbusiness? For Glenn, this might mean posts about getting glasses. For Jeff, itmight be concerns about aging, or about certain products like Botox. These signalopportunities where you can respond and be a resource. I once tweeted about afriend needing a WordPress programmer; the person who responded wasn't followingme but was getting alerts for relevant terms, and he wound up with the gig.Location mentions: If your business is based in or focused on a certain city orregion, search Twitter to see what people are saying about it. Then use theadvanced search feature to find posts from people based within a certain area.There may be ways to be a resource about your area. You should also run location-specific searches for your brands and relevant topics. The potential reach alsomatters; Glenn's target is residents within a small radius of Reading (population:83,000), while Jeff's customers live in and beyond the Dallas/Fort WorthMetroplex, home to one-quarter of all Texans.Target audience: If there are lots of relevant mentions, click the user names tosee if they look like they could be in your target audience. If the volume oftweets is high enough, you'll find a sample of people who are sharing informationabout themselves, whether from their Twitter profiles, the links to their sites,
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