Don’t fear the tweet
Despite the press coverage around brands getting Twitter horribly wrong, the micro-blogging site can present great opportunities to effectively communicate with your audience. The problem is that many brands are more apprehensive towards Twitter than they need to be.
This lack of confidence with Twitter means that some companies are worried about how they will be perceived if they tweet anything that isn’t company news or product announcements.
To use Twitter in the most effective way possible, and to reduce the chance of any Habitat/hashtag situations [in June, Habitat apologised to Twitter users for its use of unrelated search tags that ensured it featured in the top list of ‘trending topics’], brands need to ensure they have established social communications guidelines. Most brands with a blog already have these put in place; but why not for Twitter?
Simply making sure your marketing team know who their Twitter audience is, and the main goals of such a campaign will ensure you get the maximum benefit out of this channel, allowing you to effectively communicate with your audience and make sure your message isn’t diluted by pointless tweets.
While many complain that rules remove the spontaneous nature of Twitter, having a clear policy in place can actually help your team feel more comfortable about using the site, and ensure that their tweets aren’t a waste of time.
Paul Stallard,
Account director,
Berkeley PR
