However if financial advisors lowered their expectations and used it simply as a tool to expand their basic networks, they were much more satisified.  One financial advisor who focuses on women clients hooked up with a group of women entrepreneuer and meets with them monthly (though no clients have come of this).  Another, who’s speciality is charitable giving got followed by a prominent philanthropist, a connection that wouldn’t have been possible without the freedom Twitter to connect with large groups of people in a casual, non time consuming way….

So what can a Business Wise Mom get from this – how can and should you use Twitter to build your business?  Of course it all depends on the type of business you’re in, but here are a few Twitter tips:

1. Don’t expect to get customers – Twitter is not necessarily about grabbing paying customers as it is about starting a relationship.  Follow and get followers who are interested in your area – whether it’s tween bedding, construction services or financial advice.

2. You can Twitter out helpful tips and encourage people to read more by going to your website or blog, where then you can hopefully capture an email address or even convert them

3.  Use Twitter to announce sales- if you always have an item on special or a great deal and can support this type of discounting, let Twitter know and up people will re-tweet the sale.  Encorage people to re-tweet

4. Follow proper Twitter protocol – if you have more followers than you’re following then you should even it up.  Unless you strongly object or feel that follower is inappropriate (I get invitations from some shady suspects that I delete), then follow the person back

A sushi restaurant owner gets up to 5 new customers a night because of Twitter, and uses it to tweet about the specials of the night.  Customers who metnion twitter get a free seaweed salad.

Twitter, for small businesses has become the new word of mouth.   The short 140-character messages are like little updates and can be re-tweeted.  So if you’re a cart owner posting a location, all your fans will see it on their pages, plus they can retweet to all of their friends, thereby increasing the viral aspect of it.

You can also use applications like TweetDeck to help monitor Twitter comments and profiles to find relevant people to follow.

Twitter can also be a great way to announce a sale or a special…especially since you can tweet from a phone.

But the most intersesting thing – is while small business owners are finding ways to make money, the service which is free is still losing money.