These days social media experts demand, nay, expect everyone under the sun to be actively Tweeting. However, small businesses are somewhat weary to jump on the bandwagon due to a lack of results.

Here are some stories from business owners who Tweet, and the results they achieved:

A company called Avaya, a global communication provider out of Baskin Ridge, N.J. follows about 2,500 tweets a week. They use third party applications to track mentions of their name and questions posted that are related to their business. “We see those, we’re on them in 15 or 20 minutes.” says Paul Dunay the managing director of services and social marketing. “That provides killer support and customer delight.” Mr. Dunay tells a story about a post he read from a company looking for a new phone system. “Within 13 days, we were able to convert that one tweet into a $250,000 sale.”

Humphry Slocombe is a 14 seat ice cream shop in San Francisco. They have gathered 300,000 Twitter followers. “We started using Twitter just because we have zero money for any kind of advertising or promotions” says Sean Vahey the co-owner. Their flavors change daily and they wanted to have a way to keep their clients up to date. “As soon as we put it on Twitter, it moves” He says, “It’s an insane response”.

Whole Foods uses Twitter as a live version of a FAQ. They have 1.7 million followers. The theory is that if one person has a question others will as well. Answering it in no time shows the customers the company cares about them.

Kiss my Bundt is a small bakery in Los Angeles. Chrysta Wilson, the owner, likes to experiment with new products and Twitter is like a focus group for her to see which of her new products gets the best tweets. “It’s great for getting input – they become your sounding board” she says. “It’s a way to break out of the business owner’s bubble and get an outsider’s perspective.”

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