Twitter's Jack Dorsey on How Entrepreneurs Should Use Twitter As part of National Small Business Week, Dorsey will join SBA Chief Karen Mills for a discussion of best practices.

By Catherine Clifford

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

digitalafro.com
Twitter's Jack Dorsey

Don't think too hard about a formal social-media strategy for your business, says Jack Dorsey, the co-founder of micro-blogging site Twitter.

"When you start saying words like "social media,' or phrases like "social media,' it becomes this big, abstract thing that of course it is hard to understand," says Dorsey, who will be joining Small Business Administration chief Karen Mills in a panel discussion on small-business best practices tonight in honor of National Small Business Week.

Dorsey's presence in Washington, D.C., will add some oomph to what has historically been a pretty sleepy week celebrating small-businesses.

Related: SBA Roadshow for Small Business Week's 50-Year Anniversary

Think about social media in a very personal way, says Dorsey. "Be authentic, be genuine, talk about what you are doing every day to highlight your business," he says. Hearing updates on what you, the entrepreneur, are doing to turn the wheels and make your business operate is going to get your customers excited and bring them in your door, he says.

Reflect on what inspired you to launch your business in the first place, he says. "It comes down to the very simple things of talking about what you are doing, talking about your passion, talking about your love," Dorsey says. "I wouldn't focus on the right way to "do' social media. Just talk about what you love."

If that's the way Dorsey himself tweets, then it seems the Silicon Valley tech giant is a man very much tickled by the arts. His recent tweets highlight a new exhibit at the Museum in Modern Art in New York of the work of the Swiss-born architect Charles-Édouard Jeanneret and the excerpt of an essay in which Virginia Woolf critics the work of Ernest Hemingway.

Related: Small-Business Stars of 2013: State Standouts

Catherine Clifford

Senior Entrepreneurship Writer at CNBC

Catherine Clifford is senior entrepreneurship writer at CNBC. She was formerly a senior writer at Entrepreneur.com, the small business reporter at CNNMoney and an assistant in the New York bureau for CNN. Clifford attended Columbia University where she earned a bachelor's degree. She lives in Brooklyn, N.Y. You can follow her on Twitter at @CatClifford.

Want to be an Entrepreneur Leadership Network contributor? Apply now to join.

Business Ideas

70 Small Business Ideas to Start in 2025

We put together a list of the best, most profitable small business ideas for entrepreneurs to pursue in 2025.

Business News

Meet Alexandr Wang, the 28-Year-Old Who Went from MIT Dropout to Billionaire Meta Hire: 'I Wanted to Make a Difference'

One of the terms of Meta's $14.3 billion investment in Wang's company, Scale AI, was that he joins Meta in a leadership role.

Business News

Hitting 'Unsubscribe' to Annoying Emails Isn't Safe Anymore. Here's Why.

Hackers are getting creative and targeting a common practice.

Side Hustle

After a 12-Year-Old's Side Hustle Made Over $4,000 in 1 Day, He and His Dad Grew the Business to Nearly $50,000 a Month: 'It Takes Commitment'

Madden Forrest and his father, Steven, turned their passion for football into a lucrative business.

Business Solutions

Business Owners Can Finally Replace a Subtle Cost That Really Adds Up

Swap Microsoft 365 with an Microsoft Office lifetime license.