In just a few short years since Twitter came on the scene, the American lexicon has taken the simple word, “tweet” to an entirely new level. People now “tweet” on a regular basis; they have “followers” and some even base their popularity on how many followers they actually have. Now, many businesses have started using Twitter as well. But here’s a word of caution to businesses who are thinking about using Twitter and tweets to their advantage; what you put into the 140 characters that Twitter allows on each tweet can either make, or ultimately embarrass – a company.
Here’s why: a tweet is no different than an email or blog. There are simply some things you’d never want the general public to see, read or hear. But with Twitter, it goes even further, because now social media like Twitter is under fire as it’s being used for unethical and even illegal purposes. What happened in London recently is a good example – people tweeted telling others where to assemble to loot and destroy neighborhoods, barely staying one step ahead of the police. And a popular rapper recently tweeted his fans to flood a police station switchboard with bogus calls, solely for his own amusement. Except that people calling the police station with a genuine emergency couldn’t get through. So it wasn’t very funny after all.
If you’re a business owner or manager, just remember that once a tweet is sent, you can’t take it back. You can’t change it, you can’t revise it and you can’t explain it away as being “misconstrued” – because there it is in full view, plain and simple. So rule number one is this: if you wouldn’t want to see something that you write ending up putting the proverbial egg on your company’s face, don’t tweet it! Remember your parent’s advice – “just because you can do something doesn’t mean you should?” Well, that’s good advice to heed with Twitter - very good advice indeed.
Twitter does give businesses a new and timely way to communicate with an extremely sophisticated, savvy, and younger audience. If someone has chosen to follow you, then make sure you provide those followers with relevant, useful and timely tweets. Many companies do use Twitter as a marketing and public relations channel. They use it to update customers on company deals and coupon codes. Some use Twitter as an alternative customer support option, like HomeDepot, whose employees moonlight on Twitter to help customers.
You can post company news; offer alternate subscription options, even react to your customers’ feedback. You can also share stories about the human side of your company, like what employees are doing outside of work, or what charity events you support. The key is to have a strategy and a plan – otherwise, you’re just typing. If you encourage your employees to tweet about your company, make sure you have a policy in place as to what is acceptable, and what isn’t. The last thing you want to do in your excitement to jump on the social media bandwagon is to damage your company’s reputation. Happy tweeting!
Here’s why: a tweet is no different than an email or blog. There are simply some things you’d never want the general public to see, read or hear. But with Twitter, it goes even further, because now social media like Twitter is under fire as it’s being used for unethical and even illegal purposes. What happened in London recently is a good example – people tweeted telling others where to assemble to loot and destroy neighborhoods, barely staying one step ahead of the police. And a popular rapper recently tweeted his fans to flood a police station switchboard with bogus calls, solely for his own amusement. Except that people calling the police station with a genuine emergency couldn’t get through. So it wasn’t very funny after all.
If you’re a business owner or manager, just remember that once a tweet is sent, you can’t take it back. You can’t change it, you can’t revise it and you can’t explain it away as being “misconstrued” – because there it is in full view, plain and simple. So rule number one is this: if you wouldn’t want to see something that you write ending up putting the proverbial egg on your company’s face, don’t tweet it! Remember your parent’s advice – “just because you can do something doesn’t mean you should?” Well, that’s good advice to heed with Twitter - very good advice indeed.
Twitter does give businesses a new and timely way to communicate with an extremely sophisticated, savvy, and younger audience. If someone has chosen to follow you, then make sure you provide those followers with relevant, useful and timely tweets. Many companies do use Twitter as a marketing and public relations channel. They use it to update customers on company deals and coupon codes. Some use Twitter as an alternative customer support option, like HomeDepot, whose employees moonlight on Twitter to help customers.
You can post company news; offer alternate subscription options, even react to your customers’ feedback. You can also share stories about the human side of your company, like what employees are doing outside of work, or what charity events you support. The key is to have a strategy and a plan – otherwise, you’re just typing. If you encourage your employees to tweet about your company, make sure you have a policy in place as to what is acceptable, and what isn’t. The last thing you want to do in your excitement to jump on the social media bandwagon is to damage your company’s reputation. Happy tweeting!
