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After months of rumored testing, small business owners can finally get a glimpse of the forthcoming Twitter Business Center, which boasts several impressive new features to help them connect with customers. Mashable has the full scoop (with screenshots) of the new Twitter console and there’s lots of promising features to talk about.

First off, don’t get too excited: The TBC is currently only available to select accounts where Twitter has already turned on the switch, but it’s expected that the rollout will continue on a gradual basis. And, of course, some folks already have it. Mashable shows that a very small group of business owners have already started to receive emails inviting them to test the Twitter Toolkit.

After receiving the invite, users can access a new Business tab in their settings to activate the features. Once there, businesses owners are asked to fill in some additional information about their company, including contact info and if they identify as a small business, large company or an individual/group.

Here are some key features to look forward to:

• Verified Business Accounts: Because trust is key in social media, the ability to receive a Verified Twitter account may help many small business owners increase trust in customer’s eyes. Previously Verified Twitter accounts have only been available to individuals. By expanding this, Twitter helps small business owners gain some street cred with their customers and helps show them that the business is serious about engaging. No more wondering if the account belongs to a company you trust or just someone pretending to be them.
• DM Customers You’re Not Following: This is a big one. Once this goes into effect, business owners will be able to have private conversations with customers without having to directly follow them on Twitter. This will aid customer service issues and will also prevent business owners from having to mass follow everyone in order to allow interaction. Businesses essentially get to take back their Twitter accounts and customers can interact with the brands that are important to them without having to do it in full view of the public. Business will have to choose to make this option available so, if for some reason, you DON’T want customers to be able to DM you, you can still stick your head in the sand. This feature alone has the potential to really increase a SMBs ability to improve customer service.
• Contributors Tab: This is one we knew was coming. The new Contributors tab will allow business owners to add multiple users to a business account to make it easier for multiple people to tweet under that name. It should prove very handy for managing and streamlining accounts.

Overall, it looks like Twitter is taking some serious steps to making Twitter more business-friendly and giving companies the tools they need to better manage their accounts. There’s no word on when the Twitter Business Center will be available to all users or if Twitter plans to charge for the new features. I suspect we’ll be hearing quite a bit more in the coming weeks about just what Twitter’s up to and how you can benefit as a small business owner.

Stay tuned!

From Small Business Trends

Get Ready: Here Comes Twitter Business Center

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