Top 12 Twitter Questions Posed by Executives
I was recently interviewed for a radio program targeting business executives for which I was asked to prepare some of the most common questions posed by this audience about using Twitter for business. Since I tend to hear the same questions repeatedly, compiling this list wasn’t too difficult a task (especially when you have input from some other very smart people). I thought I’d share the list, credit my colleagues, and also welcome any other common questions I might have missed so here goes:
- How do we measure the ROI of our Twitter efforts? (e.g., “Why are we doing this?”)
- How do we set goals and objectives?
- How do we find/define our “brand personality” on Twitter? Should it be different than how we are in other media?
- Who should be our brand’s mouthpiece? What kind of qualities or skills should this person/these people possess? (And is it ok for us to outsource or use an intern to tweet?)
- What kind of other resources does Twitter require?
- What should we tweet about?
- How do we listen and what should we be listening for?
- (from @johnchavens) Can Twitter really impact my website traffic?
- (from @pgillin) What’s the value of a Follower?
- (from @PatrickStrother) What do we do when a competitor follows us?
- (from @HowellMarketing) How do I find the time for Twitter when I can’t even find the time to read email?
- Do you think Twitter is a passing fad or will be around for the long haul?
Do you hear others to add to this list? If so, please add them below or tweet me: @hollisthomases.
Great questions I get asked a lot myself, Hollis. Here are some of my thoughts:
I would make the argument that the most value to be extracted from Twitter isn’t so much the information you publish to followers, but the information you find from those you follow, and the networking gains that can be realized.
I don’t see Twitter as a terribly good marketing (broadcasting) platform – don’t get me wrong: it has a great role to play, but there are other value propositions that should be the primary focus.
Anyhoo, here are some of my responses to some of the points above:
1 – Traditional ROI measurements aren’t terribly useful: number of followers doesn’t really have much meaning. Why? Because few people actually read *all* of your tweets. Twitter’s more like a Serendipity stream, and it’s greatest value is from networking and intelligence gathering which isn’t very quantifiable.
2 – Before setting goals and objectives, *understand* the medium first – there’s a lot more to Twitter under the hood than most people realize. Once you “figure” it out, then you’ll be able to visualize exactly how it fits into your overall strategy and decide what your goals are. However, even then, I wouldn’t be dogmatic about adherence. Again: Twitter’s main value (imo) is as an intelligence and networking platform.
3 – Your brand personality should be…well…a personality. It doesn’t have to be particularly “branded” – just as long as I know there’s an interesting human being on the other end, you’ll be fine. Voice consistency is nice, but it’s OK not to be overly formal about it.
4 – I’d only outsource if the agency really understands your organization and knows how to respond, engage and tweet swiftly and competently. Ideally, there should be an in-house tweeter(s) – not to mention, Twitter’s such a simple tool just for monitoring, so even if someone outside handles the day-to-day logistics, it’s still a good idea for people inside to use.
5 – Twitter has what’s called an open API – basically a standard that allow 3rd-party developers to build applications on top of Twitter. Twitter doesn’t offer much by way of filtering, for example, so 3rd party apps can be built to extend Twitter’s usefulness. For instance, TweetDeck is a desk-top app that enables a whole slew of other functions that make Twitter much more powerful than just the Website alone can do. There are too many to name all here.
6 – Tweet about what’s relevant to your followers! But keep tweets about your brand on the low side: I’d say that for every ten tweets, only about 1-3 should be about yourself (sounds counter-intuitive, but on Twitter, it’s the value that you add and your engagement that keeps you on followers’ radar). Tweet about general news, tweet bits of (appropriate) humor; industrial news; ask questions on Twitter (it can be a great crowdsourcing tool).
7 – Listen for brand mentions, of course. But go beyond that: listen for industrial developments; follow your competition!; listen for anything that might be of interest to your business.
Hope that helps!
@PhilBaumann
“how can we efficiently monitor the conversation about our brand and respond in a helpful and non intrusive way?”
I’m into online marketing and I’m wondering if Twitter can be an effective platform when promoting a website/business. I’m managing some social media sites and I have yet to try what Twitter can offer. Thanks for those top 12 questions! Nice!