SMEs come over all a-Twitter

UK small businesses are embracing microblogging site Twitter with around 700,000 UK small businesses now using the service.

According to research by mobile operator O2, UK SMEs are sending around three million posts or "tweets" per day.

The O2 research questioned more than 500 small businesses and found 17 per cent are using Twitter, with 28 per cent of those having signed up in the past four weeks alone. Around 6,000 small businesses sign up every day.

The research also indicated that many small businesses are using Twitter more often than social networking sites such as LinkedIn and Facebook or their own blogs.

Being able to raise the profile of the business for free was cited as a big benefit for SMEs, with 74 per cent of those surveyed saying they use Twitter to raise awareness.

In addition, around 42 per cent of SMEs said they're using the technology to stay in touch with customers and suppliers.