Twitter Helps UGA Student Build a Business

Making money in social media isn’t just for Facebook as one Grady student is finding out. From t-shirts to shot glasses to hairbows, she has started a business with the help of Twitter.

For Anna Kate Deberadino, it all started with a twitter account. @Kissmysthrnsass has since grown into a money making company.

“It’s always been an anonymous thing, like no one really knows who I am. But that’s kind of the fun part. People don’t want to talk to Anna Kate, they want to talk to Kiss My Southern Sass,” she said.

Since October 2011, KMSS has gained over 40,000 followers. And in the past year, the website’s merchandise sales of tanks, stickers and other items are in the six figures. All of the sales are done online, but the advertising methods vary.

Amanda Campbell, the sales representative at Christopher Newport University, told me, “I live right near the beach, so in the summer I would post advertisements of KMSS merchandise, and I did get quite a few sales from living so close to the beach.”

I also spoke to KMSS’s number one sales rep, Rebecca Pearson from VA Tech. She told me she’s done about 125 sales in the last year. Her most popular item? The “Bless your Heart and the USA” tank.

In these economic times, starting a business can be tough. But social media can help new businesses.

UGA Telecommunications professor Dr. Itai Himelboim said, “it allows you to put a professional look or persona for yourself on the internet for the purpose of business or anything else.”

If you’re a “Southern Bell Raising Hell”, believe in “Bows over Bros” or “Bowing Hard or Going home”, head over to their website at www.kissmysouthernsass.com.

Coming this summer you will be able t find their products in Kinucan’s stores across the south.