Simple Business Rules for Twitter
When I tell friends and family that not only do I have a Twitter account, @CMcGurn, but that the company that I work for, @BorensteinGroup, does as well, I usually get a response along these lines:
“Twitter is so stupid. I don’t care if you are sitting in traffic, or that you are going to Chipotle for lunch. Why do I need to know what you are doing every single minute?”
For many who have not yet adopted Twitter (either for personal or business use) this is their main complaint: that Twitter is an indulgent, self-centered waste of time. What is amusing is that most people who fall into the “Twitter is Stupid” camp have never actually Tweeted, and thus do not recognize the benefit and value that Twitter can provide to an individual or company.
Much more than simply a way to inform people about the inertia of your daily life, Twitter is an enormously useful tool for communicating, sharing information and building relationships that can further a business’ long term goals and raise a company’s awareness and profile among an engaged community. In recent weeks and months, I have learned more about the contested Iran election and the Washington, D.C. Metro crash via Twitter than I did through traditional news outlets.
As Twitter continues to become more and more popular, many of our clients are asking us for guidance and suggestions on how to properly use the social networking platform. I recommend companies adhere to the following guidelines:
- Be open and honest
- Be authentic. Avoid corporate-speak and marketing buzzwords
- Keep it PG-13 rated at the most
- Give credit where credit is due
- Stay engaged
- Participate in conversations
- Learn by doing
- Don’t spam!
It is important for any company to remember that with Twitter, the more you invest in it, the more you will get out of it. People are looking for conversations, news and information on Twitter. In order to become an influential thought leader within the community, a company needs to be fully engaged, and participate in conversations regularly, rather than just using the service to push out its latest press release.
Twitter is a platform on which individuals and other companies can further interact with a brand, preferably in real-time. Being present, providing relevant and useful information while demonstrating your corporate culture goes a long way in the Twitterverse. When done correctly, corporate Twitter accounts can inspire brand loyalty for years to come.
Let’s get it started!
Greetings from the laboratory! This is my maiden entry in The Borenstein Group’s corporate blog. I would love to get your feedback, so please take advantage of the comments section.
This blog is not a mouthpiece; this is a place for dialogue and information sharing, which is how I believe all good communicators ought to treat their blogs and micro-blogs. Before getting started with all of that though, many companies and even government entities who are now adopting social media need to get their bearings. There is a lot to take in and consider!
The public relations team here at The Borenstein Group just rolled out a formal social media program to the rest of the company. With it came guidelines to make sure we are all on the same page about what we are doing in social media, why we are doing it, and how to stay out of trouble!
Here are some take-aways from our guidelines that any organization can apply to get a social media program started:
- Declare the objective/goals of the program. Let participants know why you are all doing this and what you hope to get out of it.
- Make it clear whether or not participation is opt-in/opt-out. List the platforms you plan to use (blog, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, etc.) Don’t sign up for them all for the heck of it. Be realistic about which outlets you can contribute quality content to on a regular basis. More importantly, make sure it’s a platform where your audience is engaging or could be directed to engage with valuable content.
- Come up with a simple approval process for the submission of blog posts, images, videos, etc.
- List rules/guidelines for employees who choose to participate and list consequences if they do not adhere to these guidelines.
I hope this helps someone get the ball rolling at his or her own organization! Is there anything you would add to this list?
Snacks of Desperation, or: It’s About You (and 600,000 other followers)
In case you haven’t heard: technological narcissism aid Twitter continues to gain momentum. First, subjugated Iranian protesters found it a convenient vehicle for circumventing a malicious, nationally imposed bandwidth constriction. Now, it’s being used by Nike as part of a LIVESTRONG-partnered campaign to promote cancer awareness and, well…Nike…via a Twitter-reading, chalk-writing robot that prints messages of hope along the streets of the Tour de France.
You think I’m joking.
To be fair, Chalkbot is actually pretty cool. And cancer awareness is absolutely critical. So my issue is less with the campaign, and more with the manipulative conceit that Nike so elegantly encapsulates in its newfound, zeitgeist-capturing tagline—It’s About You.
For those who saw the 1980s mired in selfishness and vanity—what hath the social media gods wrought now?
Here’s the theory according to our notoriously unreliable common wisdom: consumers are now kings. Instead of treating them as equals, marketers must engage in disingenuous, ego-stroking patronization before the almighty customer will deign to grant an audience. The result is a bizarre, tragicomic amalgam of advertising bravado and insecurity—ads like “Juicy Fruit is the juiciest! But do you think it could be juicier?”
I get that we’re trying to engage our audiences and earn their trust. But artificial deference is a false prophet. As always, it remains our job as marketers to drive the conversation. Twitter and other social media concoctions can be excellent tools to that end, but not if we cede control of our fundamental responsibilities.
At the end of the day, it’s still about the message, first and foremost. It’s never been about you. And it never will be.
antisocial media
It occurred to me last week, while driving past a Chik-Fil_A, that social media is starting to become antisocial. The fast food chain had a sign in their window that promoted their free Wi-Fi. Now, don’t get me wrong, I love surfing the Net just as much as the next person, but I think there are more appropriate places, like a Starbucks, hotel chains, etc. Do people really have to drag their laptops around everywhere they go? Can’t they have a bite to eat without getting on the computer? What is next, Wi-Fi at the local Olive Garden? It just seems to change the whole environment when people have their faces engrossed in their screens. At least the iPhones are a little more discreet, and people seem to be surfing shorter intervals. But, again, maybe I am alone on this one. I just hope that these new social media tools are used to their best ability, and don’t necessarily replace other forms of media, such as emails. And I definitely think they are important tools to have, and there is still a lot to be learned from them.
I would just like to add that I love Facebook, but I think that it is hard to say anything of real importance or personal thought because it goes to a big group of folks. Nothing is truly personalized anymore. So, in summation, I think that we all need to keep our social media in check, use it when appropriate, and maybe strike up a conversation with the person next to us at Chick-Fil-A for starters.
Can’t Choose a Search Engine? Then Don’t….
I am, and might always be, a Google junkie. I continue to get the most relevant search results from Google, all presented in a stripped down, efficient interface. However, with the advent of Bing, I was obviously curious to see what Microsoft was up to with their highly advertised search engine. It’s nice, but will always be a Google junkie.
For those who haven’t tried Bing, why not give it a test drive. And while you’re at it, now you can compare the results side-by-side with Google through a new site: Bing vs. Google. From a developers perspective, this site is such a simple, well conceived idea – it probably took about 30 minutes to code, test and deploy. Of course, the first thing I thought when I saw it was “why didn’t I think about that,” but I end up saying that alot these days.