PJA: Bow & Arrow

Beyond the Personal Twitter Account: How to Launch Twitter for Business

June 11th, 2009
by Phil Johnson

On June 10, I participated in a  MITX panel discussion on Twitter, moderated by Greg Cangialosi, President of Blue Sky Factory. Fellow panelists included C.C. Chapman, who’s life force and passion is infectious, Kel Kelly, who brings a totally fresh and outspoken voice to any business conversation, and Dave Puner, the star behind the Dunkin Donuts Twitter feed and maybe the most engaging company spokesperson I’ve met. Also, you can follow the stream of topics at #MITXSM on Twitter. (Please ignore any comments that disagree with me.)

Like most events I speak at, I remember half the points I want to make when I got back to the office. This event was no different. As a partial remedy, I put together my ten suggestions for organizations that decide to launch a Twitter feed as part of their marketing efforts. You can drown in Twitter advice, so I’ve focused on a few of the key challenges that our clients have faced when they added Twitter to their social media strategy. In a couple of cases, I’m amplifying points made by the other MITX panelists, all of who are poster children for innovative uses of Twitter.

The List

1. Know your purpose: generate leads, create influence, build awareness, form personal relationships. These goals are not mutually exclusive, but lead with one.
2. Learn the secret handshake: know and use basic commands: RT, D, @ replies, search, and hashtags. We’ve seen some organizations get frustrated and give up because they didn’t master the tools.
3. Be clear about Twitter job qualifications. My top three criteria: an interesting point of view, enough time to post regularly, and the authority to speak for the organization.
4. Reveal the person behind the corporate curtain. Be human, have opinions, talk to people.
5. Follow to be followed: follow the influential people in your market and Retweet good content.
6. Develop a content strategy: what will you Tweet and why? Post a mix of relevant business information, personal experiences, and entertainment.
7. Find a better place to Tweet than Twitter: experiment with tools like TweetDeck, Twhirl, and TweetLater that allow you to manage multiple Twitter accounts, schedule Tweets, and have more than one person post on a single account.
8. The rules of popularity haven’t changed since high school: listen, follow, share credit, and answer all your @ replies.
9. Twitter name + Twitter icon = Brand identity. Choose wisely. Be sure you include a good bio. People want to follow like-minded individuals.
10. Audit yourself monthly. Use Twitalyzer and Twitter Counter to look beyond # of followers and track the number of Retweets and the influence of your followers.

One final point I really wanted to make came from Emmanuel Ording at PJA. During one of our many conversations, he pointed out that Twitter gives you the ability to see the world through other people’s eyes. That’s almost always a good thing.

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