“We’re here primarily to listen, to learn, to engage with the Twitter community and, occasionally, to share information about our company and services.”–“Acme” Company
The following is a case study of a major American company, who will be referred to as “Acme” company for this article, and their misguided Twitter strategy. The resulting challenges from this strategy could be corrected with a shift in focus.
“Acme’s”bio on Twitter explains their strategy in using Twitter. Unfortunately “Acme” seems to be stuck in the same misunderstanding that many other companies have wandered into blindly: they are missing their greatest opportunity to connect with their audience.
“Acme’s” Strategy Misses the Mark:
According to “Acme” they are on Twitter to:
- Learn
- Listen
- Engage with the Twitter community
- Occasionally share information on their company and services
“Acme’s” Problematic Twitter Company Bio:
The mistake in this bio is the fact that “Acme” should never make the statement that they “occasionally share information on our company and services.” The idea is to occasionally share company information and services WITHOUT stating that is your intention.
Strategy #1: One of the strategies that best suits businesses on Twitter is to be a go-to source of information by varying the content to include more “outside” information than sales pitches for your own products or services. The “Hard Sell” is dead and gone.
Mixed Signals: Challenge #1
“Acme” claims to want to “engage with the Twitter community” yet they only follow 204 out of a possible 1,793 people that follow them.
Strategy #2: Give your audience a voice. If you want to engage your audience, possible customers, or networking partners on Twitter then you must acknowledge their existence and importance by following them back. That means everyone of the 1,793 that follow “Acme” should be followed by “Acme.”
Perception Challenge: Understanding Strategy
“Acme’s” challenge: they are trying to fit two divergent strategies into one Twitter account. They claim to listen, learn, and engage with their audience. At the same time, it appears that they are trying to learn, from prominent Twitterers, information that they can leverage in their own social media efforts. This leads to an ineffective campaign.
Danger of Perception:
“Acme’s” audience could perceive them as attempting to build “authority” by accumulating a large number of followers while keeping the number of people or companies they follow to a minimum. This ratio of large tribes of people following you (company) vs. you (company) following a select few is often perceived by people as:
- The company or individual “must” be important and worthy of following for their brilliant content
- The company or individual “must” be uncaring and unconcerned about engaging, listening, or learning from their followers
Strategy #3: Overcoming “Acme’s” Challenges
- Keep the original account (we will call it #1) and make it your customer-audience engagement account
- Account #1 immediately follow everyone of the 1,793 “Acme” followers
- Go to Tweetlater.com and set the “auto-follow” so that you automatically follow everyone that follows “Acme”
- Set up Account #2 “Acme’s” Learn and Listen account. On this account, “Acme” ONLY follows those individuals and companies that provide the most relevant information. If “Acme” wants to follow their competition, social media strategists, or industry pundits then do so on this account. Establish the focus of Account #2 as a research, learning, and gathering information mechanism.
Conclusion
By creating two accounts, “Acme” is able to satisfy all their needs, create better perception for the brand, specifically and strategically target sources of information, and appear to care about the very customers who represent the life line to successful business in this or any other economy.
