RT: Giveaways + Twitter = A Boost in Business

People love free stuff. And these days, people also love Twitter. Just ask any of the small business owners featured in this Wall Street Journal article about small businesses that have boosted their followings by promoting contests and giveaways on the free microblogging site. In the case of Amy Reed, owner of chickdowntown.com, a contest on Twitter helped her add an average of 200 new Twitter followers a day. Today she has 4,100 followers.

You might be thinking, so what? Following a business on Twitter is completely different than being a customer of that business. That's definitely true, but consider this factoid from the WSJ article:

"Twitter followers account for 5% of traffic to (Amy Reed's) site whereas her email blasts, which reach 100,000 people, account for 4% of traffic."

All of this is to say if you're not on Twitter, you probably should be.