Small Business United Blog

What Every Small Business Can Learn from Miley Cyrus

by Christen Wegner - October 20, 2009

A couple of weeks ago, Miley Cyrus deleted her Twitter account. And what happened? The Internet and tweens, girls aged 9-14, everywhere freaked.

Web sites clamored over why she left, and dozens of other tweens vowed to follow suit. Many were sad, many were happy, and many questioned why it was news.

While I did ask the latter, I also wondered if this would start a downward spiral plaguing Twitter as yet another passé social networking site. Whether you love her or hate her, she did have an amazingly huge fan base on that site.

But she didn’t delete it because she wanted to cut ties with those loyal fans that made her millions of dollars. And she didn’t delete it because she thought the site jumped the shark. She deleted her account because she plain didn’t understand how to use it – of course, she didn’t admit to that.

On her Web site she stated that: “I often complain to the ones closest to me that I don’t seem to have much of a private life anymore and part of that is my fault. How can I whine about my life being too public if I am the one telling the world what I am doing? Some things in my life need to stay in my life only and not on some gossip site.”

She realized she was making her private life not so private by telling folks every little detail. But that is why she failed Twitter and her fans. She treated her account as a way to interact with her fans a little too much.

She Tweeted about feuds with other celebrities like infamous celebrity blogger Perez Hilton. She posted updates on what she was eating for breakfast. She posted updates on when she was going to bed. And you know what? It brought unnecessary drama to her life and she got burnt out.

So what does this have to do with small business? Just like Miley, you can easily fall into a Twitter trap. But used correctly, Twitter is pretty amazing. It can help you:

• Increase marketing reach for small businesses.
• Get information from conferences you couldn’t attend in person.
• Find folks who can answer questions, provide insight, and share tips.
• Get in touch with customers (Check out http://twitter.com/kogibbq for a perfect example).
• Get breaking news before it hits mainstream media.

That saying: don’t put the cart before the horse rings true here. Don’t choose the social networking tool and then decide how you want to use it. Not every tool will work for your brand so it is best to figure that out before diving in.

Before setting up an account, small businesses should take a hard look at what they are trying to accomplish. Figure out your goals and then find the right medium to solve that goal.

If you liked reading this you may also enjoy:

1. Finding Allies in Your Business Community
2. Word of Mouth with a Mega-Phone
3. Learn to Leverage Local at Next Cram Session - August 12th, 12 Noon Pacific