Twitter Q&A: Just the one profile – or many?
OK guys, here’s a question for you:
Who believes that you should run separate accounts on Twitter for personal and business and who thinks you should just mash the whole lot up?
I guess the answer is obvious for those who run a Twitter account from the Marcomms division of a multi-national. (Separate of course). But what about those of us who are a one/two/three man band?
We all know that our brand thrives or dies around it’s USP. And for us ittybiz(nesses), that USP generally has quite a lot to do with our personal selves.
But when I find myself twittering away on @wordsmadeeasy about the training and fun runs I am doing for my upcoming Blackmore’s half marathon, then I start to wonder how relevant any of that information is for my copywriting/content clients and associates. I mean, really, could they care less if my legs were aching yesterday after Sunday’s Pub2Pub Fun Run?
For the most case, I heartily think not. Unless I am able in some way to link that back to goal setting or some such other business case then what the hell do they care anyway?
In fact, with all of our time so precious these days, would I not, in fact, be annoyingly bombarding them with irrelevant poppycock? To the point that, after 3 or 4 of these navel-gazing Tweets, would they then choose to de-friend me? If so, I could completely understand why.
Worse still, if I have a delivery for them about which I made vague promises re: a Monday morning deadline, and they were receiving my insistent, chest-beating Tweets about how well I had run and not-so-well recovered… would they not be wondering why I was sitting in a boiling hot Epsom Salt bath instead of writing profound words of business wisdom for them? I would hazard a hearty-and-resounding ‘yes’ coming from their stuffy, office desks.
SO what is a small business webpreneur to do?
I’m not proposing to answer this this time. I am still a relative newbie on Twitter et al. So how about some of you well-trodden social networking experts give us your viewpoint on the whether to pursue Twitter with multi-personality disorder. OR should we just say, ‘to hell with it’ and make our followers wade through the drivel, while getting to know all facets of you, and allow them to make the choice on whether to stay or whether to go.
Please. I’d really value your input on this one… How do you work your Twitter strategy? (Feel free to gratuitously plug your own blog posts and words of wisdom on this topic to you heart’s content. I feel in a very sharing mood today).
Let’s get this conversation started,
Charlotte
Not long after this post went live, Chris Brogan wrote http://www.chrisbrogan.com/community-can-be-so-powerful/
So I asked him the same question. His reply:
“First, I don’t tweet for clients, so I’m not talking from experience. I believe in teaching them to fish.
That said, if it’s your company or whatever, and you’re the name on the label, it depends how effective the company wants the account to be. Let me ask the powers that be this question: when you go out seeking new prospects and when you go our schmoozing with your existing customers, do you talk 100% business the whole time?
This…is…that. If you’re not talking like a human, you’re risking alienation.
Exceptions: @jetblue. They’re a “human brand.” A few others.”
↓ Quote | Posted August 26, 2009, 11:38 pmON the same forum, http://danholloway.wordpress.com/ also offered this advice in response to my question:
“Hi Charlotte, well I know Debbie Ohi (@inkygirl) does just that,and she deos it very well, but in general I think it’s a misunderstanding of the community at the heart of twitter to run 2 accounts. Your clients/customers aren’t on twitter twitter to find out about your business in a static, factual way. There are plenty of places they can do that. Twitter is about interaction – it’s about @ replying and retweeting, about following people back and joining in the #twitchat sessions. It’s the interactive tool that makes people realise how great you are and want to come check out whatever site you have on your profile. Sure, you can tel people what you’re doing, and let them know when there’s something new on your blog – but it’s primarily a place for pimping other people’s sites, for engaging – not for telling. It’s those personal conversations that sell “you” to the twitter community.
Happy tweeting
“
↓ Quote | Posted August 26, 2009, 11:40 pmAnd on the fact that I am submitting my ‘own’ comments here, albeit made by other people… that comes from a recent conversation about the growing use/acceptance of social networking tools as a way to converse with your customers/clients on *their* terms (and in their playgrounds). ie if they’re not coming to you (and why should they?) then… go to them. So… I went to chrisbrogan – the guru.
↓ Quote | Posted August 27, 2009, 12:17 am