“A liar will not be believed, even when he speaks the truth.” –Wise man of the villiage to the boy who cried wolf
Many companies have no Twitter strategy nor an idea of the damage they do to their brand on a daily basis on Twitter. They spam and fill their Tweets with noise in a manner reminiscent of the old fable “The Boy Who Cried Wolf”. In that fable, a boy tasked with guarding a flock of sheep decided to amuse himself by crying out “Wolf-Wolf” so that the villagers would come running to his rescue.
After falsely crying wolf a number of times, the boy did encounter a real wolf. When he cried out for help he was ignored by the villagers and his flock of customers er sheep ran away.
Where is the Strategy?
A vast majority of companies utilizing Twitter have no strategy and are simply wading into the network without a clue. Some of the most common mistakes:
- Name Holder: Companies that simply establish an account to hold their name so url squatters will not steal it. This is a lazy and simple excuse for doing absolutely nothing
- Mixed Signals: Companies that claim on their Bio their purpose for being on Twitter is to engage, communicate, and connect with their audience–then the company never does engage, communicate or connect with their audience
- About Us: Companies make everything from their tweets to their responses, if they get any, all about their products, services, and proclaimed greatness
Signal to Noise Ratio
Here are some simple steps to fix the problem of tone and noise in a company’s Twitter strategy:
- Signal: For every 10 tweets, 7 tweets should be valuable information (with links) that will help your audience & information that is not about your company
- Noise: For every 10 tweets, 3 should be about your company, they should give value, and they should be informative in nature
- No Hard Sell: NEVER tweet the hard sell, act desperate to sell, or attempt to create (old school) urgency for your audience to buy anything
- Mix: After repeating the formula of 7 signal to 3 noise, your next 10 tweets should be about recognition
- Connect: In this set of 10 tweets, 5 tweets use @company-individual to recognize their work, engage, network, or ask to collaborate
- Recognize: In this second set of 10 tweets, 5 tweets use RT (Retweet) to recognize someone’s writing, open lines of communication, and network to meet companies or individuals
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A good strategy here.
Personally, I feel that Nameholder isn’t a bad idea to protect a company or person’s name if a link or message is provided on that account directing people to more information about the company.
As a general guideline, I’ve been using Twitalyzer as well to “analyze” Twitter behavior for myself and others. It offers a “tweeting analysis” of Signal/Noise, as well as other factors, over the course of a week. It also offers additional tips on “social mediquette”.
Or is it “Twitiquette”?
Hi Ray,
Thanks for adding your voice here. I completely agree with the idea that companies have to defend themselves against url squatters. I have seen some effective messages by companies explaining their actions.
At the same time, I have witnessed other companies using this tactic as a stalling strategy. They simply place their brand in limbo, don’t add anything, and worst of all don’t acknowledge their audience. Times are tough and manpower is at a premium. There must be a better solution.
I love Twitalyzer as it truly is a valuable method to understand what you are doing and how to either fix your messages or continue moving forward.
Maybe you should brand that reference to “Twitiquette.” That’s sharp and I haven’t heard anyone else use it. Thanks again for the input!
dean