I have been on Twitter since January 2009. Our SEO consultant – Webmentor.ie – advised us to sign up to Twitter and although I’d never heard of it I signed up anyway and haven’t  looked back since.

I created the account as @whatswhat_sian so that every time I tweet someone sees the business name. My bio explained the business and gave a link to Whatswhat too.

I didn’t know a soul on Twitter but as it was for the business I looked through names listed for Irish companies and I came across @irishblogs. So I followed them and also lots of their followers as I reckoned they’d mostly be in Ireland. The majority followed me back and then it grew from there.

From the start I just chatted – I can’t remember those conversations now but they developed and people asked me about Whatswhat – which was perfect as I could answer and lots would see it.

Twitter and other online social media sites suit me perfectly. All my work is done via my laptop so it is almost always on. I can multitask well so I can be on hold on the telephone, or doing admin and be tweeting at the same time. Most importantly I am no good at the good old networking in a group of people. Luckily my business partner, Barbara Gordon, could be called the Queen of Networking so she takes care of that side of the business and I can do the online stuff.

Over the past year we have had on average 3 signups to the directory a week with the referrer as Twitter. They are free listings.  We have had several companies take advantage of our €5 a month premium listing and have sold a few top ten spots too. 

Sometimes I see someone on Twitter looking for a service and I am normally able to give them a link to a list on the directory or suggest a business listed with us.  I have also received advice on Twitter regarding SEO, IT support, broadband connections, marketing, Facebook, and lots more.

Whatswhat has found a sales person via Twitter and we are still on the look out for more plus I have made contact with someone who could be very important for our business through Twitter. Unfortunately I cannot say more about that at the moment.

Meanwhile I now have over 2,300 followers so they have all seen the name Whatswhat and hopefully will think to use the directory to find a company or service in Ireland or possibly sign up with us.

I’d highly recommend Twitter for your business. If you sign up just follow me and I’ll do my best to help you. There is also excellent advice in Niall Devitt’s blog -  50 Tips to get you started on Twitter for Business

At Whatswhat.ie we can see the value of Twitter and other Social Media sites so much that we have added Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Youtube links for all paid advertisers on the directory. Just ask me about adding them – it’s simple.

Well that’s how Twitter has helped Whatswhat.ie – has it helped your business too?

(I originally posted a version of this blog on Bloggertone)