Twitter Implementation
If you are ready to implement Twitter for your company, follow the advice outlined here. Remember that all companies are different and no one knows your stakeholders better than you, so be creative, have fun and do not be afraid of Twitter!
What should be included in a corporate Tweet?
- Information that is interesting and pertinent to your stakeholders: Stock quotes, product reviews, press on your company (both good and bad), new company products or services, further information in the field, educational information, customer service conversations
- Multidirectional communication: Talk to your constituents and they will talk back
- Answer questions: “What do you think about our new store location?”, “How can be make your life easier as an investor?”, “We just redesigned our Web site, did we get it right?”, etc.
- Let followers know how they can get involved with the company, such as job opportunities (but avoid typos!)
What should a company not do when using Twitter?
- Do not use Twitter as a means of advertising
- Do not have many “voices”, ideally a company should have one corporate communicator managing their official Twitter account
- Do not speculate, misquote, or say something you will regret, as all of the tweets are out in the open once you click
- Do not use Twitter as your company’s only means of corporate communication
- Do not be too serious nor too unprofessional – a happy medium is best
Who should manage the microbloging in an organization?
It is best if only one person, from the corporate communication department, manages the company Twitter account. This way the company can be consistent and truly build a relationship with their followers. However, encourage employees to Twitter on their own, but make sure your company has talked about rules and guidelines when representing the company online.
Should CEOs be on Twitter?
Yes! But only if they want to. CEOs have great insight to add, however if blogging or microblogging is not something they are interested in, the rich conversations will not happen. Business Week’s article in September 2006 suggests that is is up to the CEO. If the CEO chooses not to blog, it would be great if they could give material or quotes to the corporate communication department to include in their postings.
How can we engage customers on Twitter?
Listen, question, respond and use customer ideas as Southwest and GM have done.
Southwest asked their followers to write a sitcom about Southwest. It sounds funny, but they got many responses because customers wanted to share their ideas.
Chris Barger from General Motors says it is most important to listen when using Twitter.
Filed under: Corporate Use of Twitter, Twitter | 3 Comments
Tags: CEOs, Corporate Communication, Do's and Dont's, General Motors, Social Media, Southwest, Twitter
I find that some company’s are using advertising in their tweets, but I thought that was the point. To answer the question what are you ? And if the company is attending a certain event should they not tweet about that? I guess I’m confused as to what is advertising and what isn’t within a tweet.
On another note, I think that having one person to handle the Twitter account (or handle all outlets of social media) is a great thing, that way the follower is familiar with that person as the “face” of the company. A good example of this is Southwest Airlines media manager Paula Berg, though she is not the CEO she still has an identity with the consumer. A CEO that is actively involved in social media is Tony H. of Zappos. I’m following him on Twitter and he is very conversational and casual with a professional outlet. He makes followers comfortable no only with himself as a CEO but Zappos as a brand. In a blog post on January 25, he listed the ways Twitter has made him grow as a person. Check it out here! http://blogs.zappos.com/blogs/ceo-and-coo-blog
Kelsey,
I’m glad that you did a post about the ways to use and not use Twitter. While I do think that companies are starting to get the hang of Twitter and how it can be used to participate in conversations with influencers, I still find companies that are using incorrectly.I think that companies are so eager to jump on the bandwagon with Twitter that they do not set goals or objectives before they start tweeting. They do not understand that simply being on Twitter does not mean that people will follow you or be interested in what you are saying. It is necessary for companies to follow advice such as yours so that they do not turn influencers off and so that they can make the most of this social media.
Karlyn,
Of course companies should advertise about what they are doing and what is going in within the corporation. However, they should not overtly push their products. The truth is their followers know about them and are already interested, thus they should not overwhelm these people with ads. Their followers want to know more than just about the lasted color of iPods. This is also when audience analysis comes into play because many of your followers may be investors or journalists rather than just customers. Does that make sense?