Twitter’s site went down for a few hours the other day and within 15 minutes I started feeling the pangs of withdrawal. Why? My goodness, it’s just a web site for short messages, isn’t it?

As I thought about it last night – why am I so attracted to Twitter? – it occurred to me that the reason might lie in Twitter’s competitive value to small companies like mine. In an important way, it gives us a leg up on big companies.

A lot of corporations worry about Twitter. Many of them don’t want to tweet on their own because they can’t control the process tightly; maybe employees will give people a bad impression of their brand. So they turn to their large agencies for help in testing social media. The large agency gives the job to junior creative people who do the best they can. The problem is that they can’t come up with revenue projections for Twitter results.

But small companies can really go to town with Twitter marketing. They can be themselves. If they’re looking for local customers, they can find them on Search. So if, for example, I have a store that specializes in interesting kites, I can talk about all the people who fly kites, I can give ideas for parties, have kite flying contests and sell discount kites, Twitter invite only, say once a month.

After several months, I can track ROI on Twitter much more easily than a large company ever could. This means that small businesses can:

• Build a great big wonderful Brand and voice that sound like they come from a real person;

• Begin to develop really solid friendships.

I’ve been doing this for a while now and I’m seeing real value. And I actually do feel a lot like the man behind the curtain, the Wizard of Twitter, pulling all the right levers.

If you’re interested in a Twitter or Social Media Program, feel free to call: 646-723-3231 or to visit me, on Twitter, of course, at twitter.com/loisgeller

Days fly by for me, in a frenzy of activities….from direct marketing for our clients, my social media network, my real network of friends, my new books (I’m writing), my columns and all the mundane things I do, like paying bills, returning calls, and handling the challenges of board membership.

In the course of doing all of these activities, I let others slip by. One of those things that I’m always fighting with myself about is Organization. When I was a kid, my mom said I had a disorganized mind and that was why I was so creative. Now, there’s no excuse.

So, I started calling Kate Sandberg, who had worked for us in New York. I invited her to come and visit with me in Florida, and help me to organize my desk, my closet and this visit…my new book. I had clippings everywhere and articles I’d written and in one weekend she managed to get me all straightened out.

I call her my Organizing Angel. My closet is immaculate, my book is in order, and she helped me to purge over 10,000 emails that were sitting in my home computer.

Now I’m free of clutter.  In a few months, I’ll invite her back again for a refresher. Each time she flies in, it gets easier, and there’s less clutter and more seconds for me during the day. And, we go out for dinner and celebrate….and always laugh through the process.

You can email her at: k8sandberg@yahoo.com

Recently a client came to our offices to tell us all about his fabulous line of art books. They were great, and we enjoyed seeing the art, before it was published. He mentioned the thickness of the books, the special art historian who was the author, and so on.

Then I asked him the big question: what is your offer? His reply was, “I don’t need an offer”, and “these books are high quality and stand on their own”.

I explained to him that in direct marketing you always need an offer, or you’re just selling retail in the mail. The offer answers the customer’s questions of “what’s in it for me”, and it is really the closer for the sale.

If you think about it, when you go to a regular store at the mall, you are usually on a mission to make a particular purchase. With direct marketing that is not the case at all.

When you get a direct mail piece or read a direct response ad or open up an email, you’re not necessarily in a buying mood for the product I’m trying to sell you. You might not have an immediate need for this beautiful artbook, unless there is a compelling reason or an incentive that will overcome your “sitting at home, or at your office inertia” and get you to buy immediately.

A good offer represents 40 percent of the success of your program and it has to be: believable, creative and involving.

If you want to learn more about crafting a great offer, pick up a copy of my book, Response! The Complete Guide to Profitable Direct Marketing at amazon.com, or at your local library.

Good luck and let me hear about your amazing offer. Maybe I’ll blog about it.