Microbloggin’ uber application Twitter has caught a lot of press attention lately and many businesses are wondering how to enter this space. My interest in Twitter has fired up again after seeing a few colleagues using the awesome Tweetdeck. After a bit of setting up (thanks Colm) you can feel the potential of ‘real time web’ technology come alive, from keeping in touch, monitoring buzz topics through to searching for information and people.
Or keeping up to date on celebrities who happen to be stuck in lifts.
For corporations the proposition can seem attractive. An opportunity to foster an Apple like cult in your customer base by feeding them with the latest releases? An option to launch innovative marketing strategies? Engage in one to one dialogues? Respond to angry tweets? On the surface your brand could appear fast moving and progressive.
But corporate brands have a turbulent history when things get a bit social and Twitter is no different. Big corporates like control, uniformity, clear messaging and co-ordination. But this is hard to achieve across thousands of employees who may be Tweeting on every aspect of your business and have different views.
You could have a unified Twitter presence but that would be dry, lack personality and disclude many individuals across the organisation who could help bring the brand to life.
So what’s the answer?
I was reminded of Wally Ollins and his wisdom in ‘On Brand’ on how there should be a shift in thinking around marketing to improve the focus within the organisation itself, in contrast to marketing exclusively to customers or the trade. Under an achingly cheesy slogan of “Bonding, as much as branding” he suggested brand marketing is as important to those within the organisation as it is to traditional customers, particularly in service industries.
Is Ollins right? I think so. Paying attention to getting a true and honest brand message that all members of the business can understand and believe in pays off. It demands less control than an official policy or guidelines for employees using social technologies and lets them be creative and more human, which customers will in the end appreciate and engage with more.
So instead of laying down a corporate Twitter policy, or a unified Twitter account for the brand, think about who in your organisation could be Tweeting and how your marketing teams can support them in being ‘on brand’ when its relevant, and importantly, being themselves.
