I'm sure you have recognized the similarity between mobile text advertising and the Internet craze for short messages available on Twitter.  Twitter's short message service (SMS) allows users to send and receive messages with a 140-character limit on any device, including computer, phones and pdas. 

And you may have noticed that Twitter has even begun offering promoted tweets, which are tweets paid by advertisers that are available for viewing by the entire Twitter user base. Thus far, only large advertisers such as Starbucks and Best Buy are being offered promoted tweets, and with Twitter boasting a community of almost 106 Million, it may be awhile before small business owners can afford a piece of that pie. 

But why wouldn't a small business owner use Twitter's free service as a means to promote their business?  What would compel them to pay to use mobile phone advertising as well?  Here are a few things to consider:

1.  Twitter tweets are available only to those Twitter users who have chosen to follow you.  While you can and should certainly attempt to get your customers to follow you if they use Twitter, the fact of the matter is that not everyone does.  Yes, 106 Million sounds like a lot and it is. But that represents less than 20% of all Internet users.  And believe it or not, there are those customers who still even use the Internet infrequently or even not at all.  Cell phone carriers, however, represent a much larger group of people, 82% of Americans, in fact.

2.  If you have had any experience with Twitter, you are aware that tweets can be buried very quickly. While you can get a really positive response rate up from a tweet right up front, it becomes less effective in a pretty quick time frame.  This makes Twitter a good option for building brand loyalty, but not the greatest source to promote an event such as a sale or a limited time coupon offer. You can more easily reach your customers for that type of promotion through a direct mobile advertising message.

3.  Mobile advertising, unlike Twitter, offers mobile keyword technology which makes it a more powerful targeting option for a small business advertiser.  Most small businesses want to target specific types of customers, which mobile keyword technology can do, as opposed to the larger advertisers like Starbucks and Best Buy.    People can simply text your mobile keyword right where they see it – at the cash register, webpage, event, or even when hearing an advertisement on the radio.  It is even possible to import cell phone numbers into your campaign, so you aren't building your contact list from scratch. 

Twitter cannot replace the power available to the small business owner in a well planned mobile advertising campaign, although it too has a place in the overall marketing strategy.  With affordable options and the ability to start out on a month to month basis at a low cost (it can be as low as $10/month), mobile phone advertising is a great addition to the small business owner's marketing plan.   

Be sure to stop by SmallBusinessMobileAdvertising.com to learn much more about how entrepreneurs can use mobile phone advertising to expand their business. Make sure to sign up for your free mobile phone advertising trial (and mention the promo code "mobilenow" and receive double the credits during your free trial period).

Be Sociable, Share!

•