How to keep your company from looking stupid on Twitter
San Francisco-expat turned LA PR pro Jeremy Pepper wrote a long post documenting his exploration of Twitter as a company communications channel with the outside world. The advent of Twitter hasn't changed this much: I can still get paid to take a two page long, rambling essay by an expert and rewrite it to fit on a Post-It slapped to your monitor:
- DO appear on Twitter as a real person. Be like comcastcares, not Wachovia.
- DON'T let your PR firm do the tweeting. A customer-facing employee like comcastcares is best.
- Who to follow: DO follow people who follow your company's account. DO follow people who tweet about the company more than once. DO follow people who talk about the company's space.
- DO reply to people who direct-message you. Be engaged and responsive. Be personable. There's nothing worse than sending someone a direct message on Twitter ... and hearing nothing back.