★ AdAge Tells Us About Twitter & My Response

Today, I clicked through someone’s tweet to a post on AdAge.com about Twitter. What intrigued me to click was the title. The post was called, “Top 10 Reasons Your Company Probably Shouldn’t Tweet” and it was written by BL Ochman. To make things a bit easier, I’ve posted the ten reasons below and I’ll offer my thoughts on these reasons. I do encourage that you read the full post in its entirety but copying it below does help the flow just a bit. Let’s get started.

1. You think using Twitter is a social-media strategy. It’s a tactic, a tool, not a strategy. It works if you already have an online following who’ll view your Tweets as a way to interact with your company on a human level.

I agree with the first sentence. Twitter is a tool and tactic but it’s a part of a larger strategy and not a stand alone strategy. Maybe she meant to word that differently. However, it’s not a tool you should adopt only if you have an online following. What’s wrong with using Twitter to develop an online following. BL Ochman says that she advises Fortune 500 Companies so I’m pretty sure you could search Twitter for any one of these companies and its holdings and connect with people that are talking about you. You have to start somewhere.

2. Every tweet has to be approved by legal. Twitter is a social network where conversation is fast and interconnected. If you have to wait a day, or even a few hours for your 140 character Tweet to gain legal approval, Twitter will be the wrong platform for you.

I agree with this fact and luckily I haven’t had the pleasure of working with a company like this. I would like to add that the social media revolution is about being open and honest in real time with your customers. If you aren’t able to do this then this won’t be your revolution and you’ll just have to sit around remaining stagnant. Change policies or die is my new motto for companies that don’t like blogging, Twitter or YouTube.

3. You plan to use Twitter for nothing but broadcasting headlines or deals. People follow people they find interesting. Followers are earned on Twitter. Be interesting, make only every 10th tweet about you, and you’ll gain and keep a following. If all your tweets are a one-way street: Block!

This isn’t entirely true. I’ve done extensive studies on Twitter habits and user perception to specific tweets. Dell has a list of Twitter accounts and all of them contain deals. These accounts are replying to people asking questions but anything other than a reply is usually a coupon code. Dell Outlet is one of the most followed companies on Twitter. Regarding the block button, this is a very rarely used button for most people. The block tool us used less than 2% of the time when you’re simply not interested in someone’s tweets. If I don’t like your stream of consciousness, I just unfollow you. The block tool is generally leveraged when someone is being a complete ass to you or someone you know. I wouldn’t block a company for posting coupons all day, I just unfollow them.

4. You think a ghost tweeter for the president of your company is OK. Authenticity and transparency are the keys. It’s fine if someone besides the CEO tweets for your company, as long as they say that’s what they’re doing.

I agree with this and this is where many celebrity Twitter accounts have gone wrong. BritneySpears on Twitter is simply a group of people making her look good but the content isn’t britney at all and it turns people off to following her. The same goes for companies and simply having the CEO’s team twittering but being completely honest about that is a much better solution.

5. You are not going to respond when people direct tweets at you. Twitter is like the new water cooler. If you walked out to the water fountain and talked nonstop to people gathered there, they’d certainly be happy when you left. Ditto for Twitter.

Each and every person has their own unique style. I’ve tried over 30 different styles on Twitter and the most effective use of Twitter is replying to people 1 out of 4 tweets. For every 3 unique and interesting thoughts, I save one of those to reply to someone who initiated a conversation to me or a tweet from someone that I think needs a reply. Anything else can be taken to direct message but most people don’t expect a reply and that’s what makes Twitter awesome. I’m 50/50 on your judgment there. The top 25 most followed Twitter users don’t reply to anyone or if they do, it’s a rare occurrence. Granted, these users are celebrities, still people will follow Ford Motor company just because and never expect a reply.

6. You think Tweeting as XYZ Corp. and using the company logo as your avatar might be a good idea. Identify the person or people tweeting for your company or don’t tweet. The days of hiding behind the faceless corporation are over.

That’s a bold statement and maybe this makes you an expert by saying those days are over. I disagree. There have been very successful accounts followed by thousands of people where the account is the logo of the company and it’s the logo talking. The message is always the same, it’s only one person tweeting but people identify with the logo and then hear your voice.I’m still 50/50 on this one as well but I would never go on record with a statement such as those days are over. I hope it comes true for your sake.

7. You think all that matters on Twitter is getting a lot of people to follow you. Quality trumps quantity.

This is very true and I’ve always said it’s who follows you and their loyalty that really makes the difference. Twitter-Friends.com is great for gauging follower loyalty. I have more loyal followers than nearly all of the social media experts with 15 thousand followers. This is more important than a number.

8. You want to protect your updates. If people have to ask permission to see what you’re posting on Twitter, you’re defeating the purpose, which is conversation.

For a company, I’d agree with you but normal users need privacy too and only want friends and family to see their updates. My girlfriend went private for 4 months. Her 5 follower a day average dropped to 2 followers a day. Turning off privacy made the figure jump back to 5 followers a day.

9. You plan to track Twitter with Google Analytics. Google Analytics won’t give you true tracking. You can track the URLs you post with a service like BudURL or bit.ly, but you’ll need to use one or more social-media tracking tools to monitor your corporate reputation and influence on Twitter.

Wait. You can’t track Twitter clicks with Google Analytics? I’m confused and I hope you can elaborate.

10. You think you can just jump in and start tweeting. Listen first. Monitor what’s being said about your brand, your industry, your products. Then join the conversation and become part of the community. Then your occasional marketing messages will be accepted, or at least tolerated because you also add value to the community.

Or you could jump right in and start a conversation and learn about what people think along the way. If you’re telling this to 12 board members who have no clue what Facebook is then yeah I’d agree with you but tech savvy companies should hop right in and check it out. There’s not much to lose when you’re first starting out.

Overall, BL Ochman made some great points but I felt there was a need to elaborate and argue a few of these points. Thanks for reading.

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