SmallBusinessNewz

We've explored different ways to use Twitter for business repeatedly. There are still many doubters out there however. It is often hard to put a real value on it, but AdAge is talking about a pizza place in New Orleans, which has done just that.

It is worth noting that the pizza place is backed by Uber-Entrepreneur Mark Cuban, so I would imagine that helps a lot, but isn't that just more motivation to push your branding efforts harder with Twitter?

On April 23rd, Naked Pizza launched an exclusive-to-Twitter promotion that accounted for 15% of that day's business. "Every phone call was tracked, every order was measured by where it came from, and it told us very quickly that Twitter is useful," said Naked Pizza Co-founder Jeff Leach, the restaurant's co-founder. "Sure, there's the brand marketing and getting-to-know-you stuff. ... But we wanted to know: Can it make the cash register ring?" Abbey Klaassen, author of the AdAge article writes:

Twitter's real-time messaging service is turning out to be a boon to local establishments, who are starting to get onboard -- mostly because the message pops into users' Twitter feeds and they're close enough to act on it. For Mr. Leach, who is targeting people within a three-mile radius of his store, that's key. He's gone so far as to erect a billboard outside his store publicizing Naked Pizza's Twitter handle...

This brings up the point about reaching mobile users via Twitter - something that could be incredibly beneficial to local businesses. You can always find Twitterers by city too with a service like Twellow (disclosure: Twellow is owned by iEntry). Combine that with Twitter search to see who's talking about what you offer, and you'll no doubt start considering the possibilities.

What Naked Pizza has done with the billboard also brings up another good point about ways to integrate Twitter into your marketing. Make sure people know about your Twitter presence. You can of course do this easily with your web site, but for brick and mortars, why not feature your Twitter account prominently on other marketing materials - signage, coupons, business cards, etc.

You have to consider that you are much more likely to find success using Twitter as a marketing tool if people know that you're on it. And if you are on it, stay on it. By this, I mean keep up with it and update it regularly. A Twitter account with no updates is useless.