Good news: your employer has caught onto this social media stuff and understands its place in promoting your organization.
Bad news: he wants you to tweet on behalf of the company.
Sure, getting paid to chat with others doesn’t sound like a bad thing. But how can you be sure you’re ‘doing it right’ and representing your company as your boss hopes?
Co-brand
Social media is about authenticity, so put a face to the profile. But remember that this is a work-funded initiative and the brand needs some lift as well. Co-branding lets people forge a relationship with an individual who is representing an organization.
Remember (or find) your niche
I have three twitter accounts: afhill (for technology and social media), afhill262 (for athletic pursuits) and my work cobranded AndreaWorldways (for nonprofit and public health). How I use each of the accounts is consistent with the network and relationship that I intend for that persona to foster online.
Note: not everyone does this. Some people are perfectly happy to have a single twitter account where they discuss whatever they like. But remember, this account was established as the behest of your employer and therefore should focus on work-related relationships and information.
Get your profile ready
Add a profile picture and description. Try out a couple tweets. Have something on your profile before you start following people, to let them know you’re worth following back.
Learn the language
Twitter is limited to 140 characters, and there are a few shortcuts or conventions that have emerged. Learn how to “retweet”, “direct message” someone or “send an ‘at’ reply”.
To “retweet” is to repost something someone has already tweeted. It’s good practice to credit them. Often people start their tweets with “RT @username” if they are completely copying a tweet, or finish their tweet with “(via @username)” if they are adding to or modifying the tweet, but still want to acknowledge the original source.
Start building your network
Directories like wefollow.com or twellow.com will help you find people already tweeting about the topics that interest you. Find one person whose tweets interest you, and look at who they’re following to identify other like-minded individuals.
Search on http://search.twitter.com for specific terms or topics (for example, your company name or product) and see who’s talking about them already.
Strengthen relationships
A good way to start building a community is to publicly acknowledge others through retweeting or publicly replying. This also helps others to build their network as they see you acknowledging good work.
Don’t worry if you haven’t started tweeting on your own yet, or you have your own personal account and aren’t sure how to make this work professionally. These few tips will help you leverage the power of this personal networking tool for professional purposes.
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{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Now that Twitter has @replies automatically NOT show up in followers’ streams unless they follow both parties, it helps to know how to get around that if you choose to: if you want everyone to see your @reply to another member, make sure the first character in your tweet is something other than @. For example:
@afhill this won’t show up on other people’s feeds
This, @afhill, will definitely show up in my followers’ feeds.
You can choose your level of conversation: direct message (whispering in someone’s ear), @reply someone (using your inside voice), and regular tweets with @reply in the text (using your outside voice).
Follow me on twitter: tajmo
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thanks, Taj – yet another instance where writing about SoMe becomes outdated very, very quickly.
Follow me on twitter: afhill262
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