Editor’s note: This article was first published in June 2012. The tool names reflect that year: Twitter has since been renamed X, CoTweet was discontinued, TweetDeck became the paid X Pro and HootSuite is now styled Hootsuite.
It is perhaps one of the most popular of the new communication channels known as “social networks”. As part of a policy of staying in close contact with customers and suppliers, companies now have a Twitter account that they use every day, usually run by authorised employees with very clear ideas about the message they want to get across.
Even so, if you are thinking of moving into this area of your company’s external communication and you are going to be in charge of the conversation between the two sides, some of these tips may help you stay in tune with your company’s communication. Above all, always remember that your personal Twitter account is one thing and your company’s official account is quite another.
For example…
Verb forms: don’t tweet in the first person. The company is a third person: it is the company that is speaking. You are not the one telling the news; you are doing it as the spokesperson of a legal entity. So the takeaway is that you should use the third person singular in your communications.
Separate your content: keep what belongs to the company’s image apart from its professional content. Twitter is a public, worldwide medium. Not every comment will be positive, just as not all your customers speak well of your company. That is why you should separate content into different accounts: on one side, the corporate image account, and on the other, support, help, complaints and content for the consumers or customers your business serves.
Spread out your tweets: the corporate account should have a steady flow of content throughout the day and the whole week. To deal with time differences, for example, you can schedule tweets. All the main Twitter clients (TweetDeck, HootSuite, CoTweet) let you schedule tweets to be published in the future.
Pick your favourites: the aim is to win more followers who are committed to your company. Set priorities and look after the users who do the most for your company through their comments or their activity on the platform.
Don’t get into fights with rude users: remember that it is a public platform and everyone expresses their opinions, positive or negative. The best answer is your company’s overall image. Don’t get drawn into arguments and nasty comments.
Featured image: Runner1928, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
