Very interesting article in eMarketer this morning reviewing some data from HubSpot showing that healthy usage of Twitter by small businesses can readily DOUBLE their pace of lead generation.
This result occurred once a business reached at least 100 followers on Twitter, so there is a brief ramp up period required with solid engagement to gain 100 "real" followers. With a bit of coaching, we've found that most small businesses can achieve that level of Followers within a few weeks.
This resonates well with what we are seeing amongst the businesses using the ReachLocal digital presence platform (aka CloudProfile). There is truly no excuse for small businesses not jumping in and beginning to develop a healthy online presence...it takes minutes per day and can have a profoundly positive impact on their business.