I often times speak with potential clients who say “oh that Twitter thing, I don’t really need that” it always gets me because every business that has an audience should be utilizing these social platforms in some sort of fashion.  A prime example is a recent story on The Huffington Post about a recent California high school student who turned one tweet into a $20,000 college scholarship.

“The Twitter entry from 17-year-old Amanda Russell was selected Wednesday from more than 2,800 tweets that competed for the scholarship offered by a foundation for the Louisville-based KFC restaurant chain. Russell reached the 140 character limit for the contest, so she’ll get $142 per character to pursue her college dreams.”

Was it a long shot for this high school student? Yes but she tried it and it worked out for her. This same principal applies to businesses thinking they don’t need to use Twitter for added exposure. Twitter is one of those platforms that if you slowly start using and you track your analytics on a weekly basis eventually you will start seeing referring traffic coming through over to your website. Does it take time and creativity? It sure does but that doesn’t mean you can’t be there and shouldn’t be trying in some sort of way. Business marketing as a whole has changed drastically since the evolution of the internet and social media is one of those external spin offs from the web that has become increasingly important to pursue regardless of what you offer. Every business has the potential to target their specific audience online if they put their mind to it.

“The winning tweet refers to the chain’s late founder Colonel Harland Sanders and says: “Hey Colonel! Your scholarship’s the secret ingredient missing from my recipe for success! Got the grades, drive, just need cash!”

This student didn’t own a business but the concept is the same, she took a chance to raise money which is what all businesses do indirectly on these platforms when they communicate. You have to embrace the surrounding technologies if you really want to be successful online. You have to have the ability to see the opportunities sitting inside these giant communication platforms in order to want to pursue them. You have to believe in the process.