A Lot of companies now run their own corporate twitter accounts, and a lot of them get it wrong, twitter is about engagement and if done correctly can result in an improved brand image and the possibility of increased profit.
But how exactly do you run a successful twitter account for your business? these are my top 5 tips to get you started:
1. You are not your company.
Posting for your company is not the same as posting for
yourself. Your brand should have its own personality and voice; you need to
ensure this it what comes across in your tweets.
Don’t take this too far however, millions of people can
access what you post, come off as insensitive and you can grantee you will end
up in the mornings papers for your slip up.
Source: Baer (2014)
And most importantly…….Never use ‘I’ in a post.
2. Get a Schedule
Scheduling your tweets is a great way to keep up your share
of voice, it allows you to tweet when your not at the office or even just when
you are busy, no more logging on from home to spread the word about you next
sale.
Websites such as TweetDeck, HootSuite and CoTweet all work well for scheduling tweets,
they also allow you to keep en eye on multiple hash tag feeds so you know
exactly who is talking about you, or even your rivals.
However, make sure you don’t schedule anything that’s going
to cause a storm while you are offline, corporate twitter pages are a hub for
conversation, don’t leave your followers without answers.
Be professional
Twitter is a hot bed for trolls and arguments ensure you
don’t get caught up in any of this, twitter rows often hit the headlines
causing bad publicity for your company.
If your following is growing, consider starting up a spate
account for complaints and comments, managed by your customer service teams,
this not only keeps negative comments and long conversations off of your main
page, but also allows for quicker responses to these issues, keeping your
customers happier.
The web is also full of the many mistakes made by companies
on their social accounts, the most common of these is administrators sending
tweets intended for their personal account.
Source: Baer, J. (2014)
If this slip up happens to you, ensure you are prepared, the
rouge tweet needs to be removed as quickly as possible, but you can’t just
sweep it under the rug, you can guarantee one of your followers has already
screen capped the mistake and posted it to their own feed. Stay calm and post a
retraction, if your company voice allows for it, add some humour and you can
change a disaster into something your followers will remember positively.
Source: Baer, J. (2014)
Know your audience
Everyone likes to feel special and twitter is one way to
connect with your customer base, take the time to reply to questions and
comments, engagement is key. If a customer goes out of their way to send you
something interesting, reward them, re-tweeting their post or offering them a
prize is a great way to inspire your customers and improve your brand image.
As well as customers you will also find a plethora of
bloggers and twitter personalities, don’t underestimate them, these users have
huge followings and keeping them happy will most likely work out in your
favour.
Remember you are not in control
Twitter is a public domain and there is nothing to stop
users placing your hash tags on their tweets. You need to carefully consider
what you place online, the outcome could be very different to what you would
expect.
Waitrse learnt this the hard way with their #waitrosereasons
campaign, which eneded up damaging their brand image rather than strengthening it
when followes didn’t take the campaign seriously.
Source:
For more information on what do right and what not to do
wrong check out the links below.
References
Baer, J. (2014) Corporate
Twitter Account Train Wreck! The 3 Types of Self-Destructive Tweets. Convenience Convert, [Online] <http://www.convinceandconvert.com/social-media-strategy/corporate-twitter-account-train-wreck-the-3-types-of-self-destructive-tweets/> [accessed 25th April 2014]
Smith, H. (2013) What Should I Tweet? Tips For Corporate Twitter Accounts. State of Digital,13 November 2013 [Online] <http://www.stateofdigital.com/what-should-i-tweet-tips-for-planning-corporate-twitter-accounts/> [accessed 25th April 2014]
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