Even if you think your customers are not on Twitter there are still benefits to sharing your business story through the service.

Laura Fitton ( @pistachio ) has some great additional off platform benefits from Twittering.  These are great ideas and show that even if you’re in a business that doesn’t have a lot of customers on Twitter you can still help your business through Twitter.

1. SEO – Findability on the web.  Twitter is a great service to help you move up the search results.  Use your business name as your Twitter user name to help manage your search rankings.  Bring people to your website with an active Twitter presence.

2. Research – Twitter is a great way to listen to what people are saying on the web about your field and research new ideas and directions.  You can ask questions and develop feedback loops for pretty much anything.

3. Content Generation Engine – setup a resource on your home page and use it to share and give your web site visitors a place to see what’s people are talking about.  Twitter can be a quick way to keep your customers in the loop for events and all kinds of things.  The quick communication platform is a tool with myriad possibilities.

4. Word of Mouth Pass-a-Long – Your promotions can spread beyond Twitter, even to your off – line customers if you create deals worth spreading.  A few followers could potentially share your promotion with their non twittering friends, spreading your good deals and positive word of mouth.

5. PR Gravity – sharing on Twitter can connect you to media professionals looking for great stories.  If you share great content you can become a resource for your local media professionals.  Most local media professionals are on Twitter.  You can often by-pass the press release and communicate directly with journalists through Twitter.