Stylized Tweeting

So you're tweeting away these days and you're getting pretty comfortable with it, but now others from your company want to get in the tweet game too. So, what would be the reason not to let them? If you have a very small company it may not be necessary, but the larger your company the more beneficial it can be to have others tweeting too. The question then, how do you make sure all that there is consistent tweeting in terms of message and tone?

Well, the good news is that you only have 140 characters, so there isn't too much that can be done to ruin your brand or for people to vary too widely in the way the write their tweets. However, you should develop a Twitter style guide to ensure consistent tweeting.Here are the things to think about when creating your Twitter style guide.

1. If there are any acronyms that your company uses internally, think about whether or not you want to start using them publicly. Acronyms are a great shorthand and since you only have 140 characters this can be very useful. However, often internal acronyms have no public meaning, which can pose an issue in the terms of clear communication.

2. What are the topics you will discuss? Consistency in message is huge. Make sure that your Twitter style guide accounts for the types of messages that will be tweeted.

3. Include checks and balances. While this could be more appropriate for a social media policy, its not a bad idea to include it in your Twitter style guide too. This means who do you double check your tweets with prior to posting, what are the rules around including phone numbers or other contact info, etc.

4. Decide how you plan to use links. Do you only link to your own site? Do you link to other sites?

5. Your style guide should also include rules and suggestions on frequency of tweets for events. For example if you tweet about something coming up in a week, remember that it should be tweeted again at least a day in advance. If you want people to come to the event, then it might be worth tweeting right up until the event starts.

As you are creating your guide there will be other things that come up which are specific to your company. To make sure that you have a complete Twitter style guide that will work for your company make sure you go back and look at why you're tweeting in the first place. Remember who your audience is and what you want to accomplish with Twitter.

Above all remember that your Twitter style guide is subject to change. Just as social media is a fluid medium, you need to be willing to make adjustments in your social media policies and your Twitter style guide. Nothing is set in stone, but it is important to have guide to work from

So What's the Tweet?

Well, be careful what you wish for. We've launched our Twitter page and now we have to feed the beast. So comes the next step in your company's Twitter page. You've taken the time to answer the five simple questions that will help you strategize your Twitter efforts. You've launched your page. Now, what to Tweet?

Well, this is a little more difficult to discern. It can really vary by industry and it is also dependent on what your answer to question number one was (see the previous post). In our case we are trying to reach our customers. So the goal is to offer up tweets that are relevant to our customers.

While this sounds simple and straight forward, it isn't as easy as that. It is important that you get a few people thinking about what you want to tweet about. Don't put all the pressure on yourself to come up with relevant tweets. Try to get a team of people thinking about it.

When you do decide what you are going to tweet, try to make it a call to action or offer your audience something more from you tweet. Send them to your website with a link. Send them to a partner website or provide them with a physical location you recommend they visit. Invite them to do something.

You want your audience to come to expect that they were learn from your tweets or that there is something in it for them. This will help you to build the number of followers you have and will also improve your chances of having your information "retweeted" or forwarded to your follower's followers.

It is a good idea to brainstorm a series of tweets and then decide how often you want to tweet at a minimum. You can always tweet more, but you need to make sure you have set number of tweets you will do each day or each week. You must tweet at the very least once a week, but try to tweet once a day. Again you can increase the number of tweets if you find you have more to say.

When you tweet remember that Twitter is a short lived medium. You can give your followers a heads up about a coming event, but unless the event is happening with the next 24 hours, you will probably need to tweet about it again. This is a great way to build up anticipation about an event though, so don't discount it all together.

So, here's the bottom line about what to tweet:

1. Make sure you have your target audience in mind as you think of your tweets.
2. Have a team of people who can help you come up with tweet subjects (or at least one other person).
3. Have a list of tweet subjects ready to go at all times.
4. Have a call to action or an additional option to allow your followers to get more from your tweet (i.e. a link to your site or another site, or invite your followers to physically do something)
5. Determine how often you are going to tweet, set a minimum, you can always tweet more. Consistency is important.
6. Keep the format of this medium in mind when you're tweeting. Information on Twitter is short lived so if you're talking about a future event it will need to be tweeted repeatedly.

If you follow the guide above you should be able to keep your Twitter page up. Consistency and the relevance of your tweets build quality followers and quality is more important than quantity.

Let the Tweet Begin...

So today we did it.  We launched a Twitter page at our company.  In my industry, which is fairly conservative, this is a pretty big step.  In a world that is predetermined and needs to have a great deal of well thought out strategy attached, this move to the Twitterverse is enormous.

The arguments not to Twitter are many.  What if we get too many people following us that are really just Twitter spammers?  How do we control that? How do we get followers?  How often should we Tweet and most importantly, what do we Tweet?

Well, in all honesty, sometimes you need to jump in and find the answers to those questions as you go.  However, having some sort of a plan is better than no plan at all.  So let's tackle the basics of your Twitter strategy.

1. Who are you trying to reach with your Tweets?  Is it customers? Employees? 
   
2. What are you going to Tweet about?  There are many options here, but you need to have some sort of focus.  The kitchen sink approach is not the best way to go.  
3. Who is going to be point to manage the @replies that must be sent and that are received?
4. Who will manage the content?  We decided on a team approach, one point person with a team feeding ideas for Tweets.
5. Should your user name represent all your brands or do you want to pick a focus area to start with?  Your user name can be key and should be discussed, particularly if your company has more than one brand. 

Then, get going!  Pull that trigger, land the plane, place your company's euphemism here.  The key is to start.  Answer some of the basic strategic questions above and don't go in blind.  Be adaptable, as Twitter is a fluid medium.  Most importantly, don't wait until you have all the answers to every possible what if.  You can't possibly.  If you try to wait and create a fully cooked strategy, the opportunity will be lost.  Now is the time to get on board, dive in, again, insert your company euphemism here.  So what are you waiting for?  Go launch your Twitter page!