I’m looking forward to embarking on a new adventure as a corporate tweeter. As such, I’ve taken a good deal of time accumulating best practices for corporate accounts. Many of these are the same as I would recommend for anyone operating a business Twitter account for themselves:

1. Have a mission/message in mind before you post your first tweet.
2. Your message should also consider your target audience.
3. Twitter directories are a good way to gain some followers initially, but there is no get followers quick solution.
4. Be selective in following. There is no need to follow everyone who follows you.
5. Be careful of your language. This is even more important for corporations than for individuals.
6. Your posts are 100% public. Remember that bad news travels faster than good news and anything your shareholders wouldn’t like will travel out of the Twitterverse and onto TV screens and into newspapers.
7. Corporations need to select a voice. It’s best if one person, or a couple of people, man the account, for consistency, and to be sure there’s no redundancy. Most corporations invoke the royal ‘we.’  Other more customer-service oriented Twitter accounts have used an individual speaking from the first person.
8. A regular stream of content is important to any Twitter feed to maintain followers. Appropriate corporate topics include:

• • respond to follower/customer inquiries
  • retweet satisfied customer tweets
  • link to updated/interesting information on corporate websites/blogs
  • retweet updates from affiliated Twitter accounts
  • Twitter contests
  • advance notice of corporate news
  • Twitter discount codes
  • stimulate Twitter discussions with product-related questions
  • product-related trivia
  • run online surveys
  • photos of corporate events

Have some other ideas? Please share in the comments!

Bird art by Triax Mills.

The four corners of Wisconsin and M Street Northwest in Washington, DC have gone through a lot of changes in the last twenty years. But Nathans Restaurant of Georgetown has been the same for 40 years.

Twenty years ago, I was a waitress there on weekends with my roommate Mary. Just for brunches, because to be a waiter at dinner at Nathans, Mr. Joynt required waiters to have real experience, and I was just a college girl, and this was my first restaurant job. Nevertheless, during my brunch service, I got to wait on Walter Cronkite and Donna Shalala. Nathans was the place.

Not only that, I learned about wine waiting tables at Nathans. They had over 100 pages in their wine list at the time, and when I started working there, I only knew red or white. When I finally got a ‘real’ job, I knew the difference between Cabernet and Merlot, and I could open a bottle of wine with a wine key. I also learned how to make a really good Bloody Mary.

So besides just appreciating the familiarity of Nathans in Georgetown, I’ve had a special place in my heart for the bar/restaurant.  I was understandably disturbed to hear earlier this year that Carol Joynt, who inherited management when her husband passed away, was having difficulty keeping the place running. I’m even sadder to hear that she’s finally announced she’s closing it July 12.

But running one’s own business is a choice one makes very carefully, and Mr. J made that choice for himself. Carol didn’t choose to run a restaurant, she was thrown into it. From what I’ve read on her blog, she’s done her very best to keep Nathans afloat.

I’m very glad I managed to schedule my most recent birthday brunch at Nathans, for old time’s sake, and we had a great time. So sorry we won’t be able to do it again. Nathans will be missed!

I had a remarkable experience at the doctor’s office last week. I was going to see a specialist (because I am special?) — no, because in January I had asked for a refill on my prescription.

The doctor’s office informed me that they would be glad to mail me new prescriptions, but that the doctor would need to see me soon. The earliest available appointment was April. Okay, fair deal. I get the drugs, he gets his office visit.

Months go by, and April is nearing. On another medical topic, my General Practitioner has decided to no longer accept patients on HMO plans. I scurry over there to get what I need done before the end of April and resolve to upgrade my plan to a PPO at work ASAP — open season is in August.

April comes, I’m ready to go to my specialist, and I get a call from THAT office cancelling the appointment. But they will call me soon, they say, since they don’t want me to be put at the back of the line with the ‘next available’ appointment.

Two weeks go by. Finally they leave a message saying my appt. will be Friday, May 19 at 3 p.m. They’ll see me then. (This is not convenient. I make several attempts to change it, but it turns out if I change it, I have to go with the ‘next available,’ appt., which is in July.)

Friday, May 19: Very inconvenient, but I make it to the appointment about 10 minutes late. I’m registering at the front desk and the nice lady says,

Oh, your referral plan has expired.”

Excuse me?”

Yes, it expired last August. You’ll just need to have your doctor fax a new one tomorrow.”

But I don’t have a doctor to write a referral for me right now – she’s not serving people with HMO plans, and I can’t switch until August.”

Then you’ll have to sign a personal financial responsibility form. It just says you’ll cover whatever your insurance doesn’t.”

Well, how much will today’s appointment cost?”

I’m not sure. Anywhere from $45 to to $415; it depends on which box the doctor checks off.”

Well, can’t we ask him how much it will be?”

I’m sure it won’t be a problem, you just have to sign this form.”

She was sure it wouldn’t be a problem.

Now, I might look to her like I had $415.oo floating about my checkbook with nothing to do, but I’d rather my insurance pay for what they’re supposed to. And there was really no reason I was there other than to pay homage to the system. You’ve got to be kidding me if you think I was going to be saddled with a bill of even $45.00 for that.

Only two places I can think of you can walk in and ask for service without having any idea how much it will cost you to walk out; the doctor’s office (and I include dentists and veterinarians in that) and the mechanic’s. Any other places you can think of?

I’m not taking it anymore.

Here’s a thought for the day. Are you feeling good about your business only because you have tunnel vision?

I have been doing some consulting that revealed just that. Some entrepreneurs feel they have amazing connections and that they’ve cornered a certain niche — when they’ve really only monopolized a certain corner on Main Street, because they don’t leave their comfort zone.

Is there an association in your industry that you’ve never looked into? Is there a part of town you never visit? Have you seen what China or Germany is offering in competition with you? Do you have competitors in these places? How do you know if you never look?

So what did you get for Christmas? Hope it was everything you asked for and more!

I got most everything on my list, according to all the branding I have been subject to, and I’ll be taking the appropriate gift cards and gift receipts to my favorite retailers over the next week or two to enjoy my X-mas loot. Cheers!

Now for the hard part — RESOLUTIONS.
Made any?

Here’s mine, to make them public is supposed to help:

1. Quit smoking. again.
2. Kick up the freelance biz. Hear that out there?
3. Lose 25 pounds.
4. Get to the left coast.
5. Get another cat. or two.

That’s enough.

On the small business front, I was sent the following article in Slate by my very wise boyfriend who thought I might understand.
Bitter Brew
He’s right — this is very much the way I felt about the record store my partner and I are planning to shut down this spring. Of course we have kept it going for a few years, not a few months. Well —  SHE has kept it going with her parents, but it is just not easy, no matter how much you love something, to run a business. Keep that in mind when you are thinking about opening your own business.

Okay, okay — I can’t just leave that question about how much it costs to market a small business hanging out there like that, can I? (I’m referring to my previous post — Dream — Question 2.

So let’s try this again.

Q: How much will it cost for me to market my small business?

A: This goes to my favorite marketing answer — IT DEPENDS.  Signage is a large but necessary investment for small retail, and advertising is usually difficult on a limited budget. But investment in one solid coupon or postcard design can pay off repeatedly.

Are you paying money to place an ad that is unattractive or worse — ineffective? Postcards allow for a word-of-mouth booster that becomes an anywhere, anytime sort of ad. From my personal point of view, spend the cash up front to get a good logo design, business cards, an ad, a coupon, a good website (even tiny businesses can use a website — it’s an ad-expander for those 1/32 page ads), t-shirts or uniforms, etc. — and get your brand cemented, then leave it alone. How much this costs depends on how many of these you do and who you get to do it for you.

Q: What can I do for free or very little money?

A: BE THERE — Chamber of Commerce, community fairs, church bazaars — make friends at any public event that happens within a 15 mile radius of your business. Give gift certificates to silent auctions or let/teach Girl Scouts to use your wireless connection. And you’ve got to give right back to any small business owners that patronize your services.

As you decide where to spend your cash, think about long-term strategy; what will you be able to use effectively?

I’m sorry I still haven’t given you prices — they are different for different professionals, for different jobs. You should always be able to get an estimate before you commit to a marketing or design professional, which will be dependent on mutual expectations defined in the estimate. If not, you’re not working with a professional.

If the housing bubble is making that American Dream a bit harder to attain, the American Dream of owning one’s own business is very much alive, thanks to virtual offices. I’ve gotten into that game in a couple of different ways myself — allow me to share some advice before you take the plunge.

Q: How much time should I invest in marketing?

A: You will need invest ALL of your time. Every waking hour, 24-7, 365. Because your business is going to be your life. Well, it is going to be your livelihood, so it should be your focus. Don’t get me wrong — be healthy — eat right, exercise, spend time with family and friends, have a work day scheduled and be sure to schedule an end. But when you own a business, everyone you meet is a potential client. Does the woman at the table next to you in the restaurant have a website you could host? How can you figure out a way to get your business card to her?

Q: How much money should I invest in marketing?

A: This is not a good way to ask this question. So I am going to ignore it. (Not really)

Q: How do I recognize a good marketing consultant?

A: A good marketing consultant will ask you about your business goals; who your customers are and where you find them. Or they will be able to help you find them if you don’t know. (If you don’t know who your customers are and where you find them, you are probably not ready to start your own business yet.) You should plan to invest up front in a good consultant to help launch your business and have some a marketing plan devised, perhaps some signage and advertising designed — even if it’s just one ad that they can run in one valuable place.

You may pay a few thousand dollars up front for a strategic marketing plan which lasts you for 3-5 years or more. That plan may make or break your business.

When you own a business, you have to know that being your own boss puts you in a very hard place. If it’s snowing out, for instance, you no longer think ‘I hope they let us off work today!’ — instead, you’re thinking ‘I’ll bet there will be more people out shopping today — ‘I’d better go get the steps cleared off.’

Anyway, if you are considering starting your own business, please do check out the SBA: www.sba.gov and the SBA’s free consulting service, SCORE at http://www.score.org/ — absolutely invaluable!

Also see: I asked, how much?