Weber Shandwick recently released the results of their study on the Twitter accounts and behavior of Fortune 100 companies. They found that a majority of Fortune 100 companies are not following best practices, afraid to engage, and overall missing important opportunities that the medium allows.

While many businesses and people get Twitter, its no surprise that the largest companies have the hardest time adjusting and adapting to the new social media way of life. The layers of management and stockholders create a barrier, that you as a small business, don’t have to deal with. Here is why your business can be better at connecting in a meaningful way with your customers in 140 characters or less. Smaller, Leaner, Faster

As a small business, you are poised to succeed with Twitter because you are more agile that larger companies. Fewer employees, less corporate restrictions and a more streamlined decision-making process all factor into the mix. It's this agility that will make you successful with Twitter. It can empower you to respond directly to customer complaints more quickly than many other methods. It will help you establish real connections and relationships with fans and followers. Your size, in this case, is your biggest asset.

Purposeful in Practice

As an SMB, you can leverage Twitter to establish your businesses with purpose. Don't fall into the same trap that Fortune 100 companies appear to have succumb to. 26% of those companies simply use Twitter as a news-feed, 24% are only used for brand awareness, and a paltry 9% used it to handle customer service.

Twitter, and in fact, any social media, will best serve your customers if you use it as a two-way communication channel. Marketing, advertising and news pushes all have their place, but don't miss out on the true ability of social media to assist in serving customers first.

Personality Matters

Weber Shandwick also looked at the personality and tonality of Fortune 100 company tweets, and they found 53% of analyzed accounts did not display personality. There are a number of reasons this could be true, but most likely the bigger the company the harder it is for them to have a real voice in social media channels, especially one that may not align with carefully crafted corporate branding.

As an SMB you're poised to put personality into your tweets without repercussion. In fact, it would probably serve you if you used your Twitter presence to have opinions on top news stories, share music of your liking, and even divulge elements of your personal life. It's these extra layers of character that will make your Twitter account more than just a Twitter name on a Twitter page.