« Social Media Marketing: Nothing Off the Cuff About Business Tweets »

Understanding the art of tweeting and doing it well is a growing concern for businesses of all sizes. Social media marketing is fast becoming an indispensible part of the business marketing mix. For example, 60 percent of Fortune 500 companies increased Twitter use in 2010 (according to The Fortune 500 and Social Media: A Longitudinal Study of Blogging and Twitter Usage by America's Largest Companies, conducted by UMass Dartmouth’s Center for Marketing Research). For small to midsize businesses, Twitter usage doubled between Q3 and Q4 2010 (according to a 3/7/2011 report on eMarketer).

Long Live the Tweet

Of course, Twitter and tweets have become a part of today's online culture. Kids, adults and grandparents tweet... corporate execs tweet... small- to mid-size businessowners tweet... and, of course, celebrities tweet. In fact, one of the uses of tweeting that has helped to popularize Twitter is the growing practice of direct tweeting by celebrities. But business Twitter users would be wise NOT to take their cues from off-the-cuff celebrity twitterers, such as @charliesheen, @kanyewest, @LindsayLohan and @actuallyNPH (Neil Patrick Harris).

Corporate Tweets Require Planning and Staregy

Business tweeting can’t afford to be completely off-the-cuff. Our litigious society dictates the need for a carefully orchestrated approach to Twitter. For most corporations, the key elements of such an approach should include:Business tweeting can’t afford to be completely off-the-cuff in our litigious society. It needs to have:

1. Strategy behind it (planning)
2. Strategy in front of it (official corporate/business messaging)
3. Strategy under it (twitterers with both feet on the ground who know not to mix personal tweeting with corporate/business messaging… and, especially, not to muddle, confuse or contradict official messaging).

Digital Echo Effect Resonates

Twitter is a critically important communication channel for corporations and small- to mid-size businesses. But, contrary to popular wisdom, its hallmark IS NOT informality and off-the-cuff commentary. Rather, its hallmark is the speed with which it disseminates corporate messaging and the digital echo effect of “retweeting” that carries that messaging farther and faster than any messaging tool that came before it.

More Powerful than Traditional Word-of-Mouth 

Twitter, used within well-defined corporate/business messaging guidelines, has the potential to be significantly more powerful than the coveted word-of-mouth of yesteryear. This is true because, as the corporate/business message gets retweeted to ever broader audiences, it never gets diluted. Retweets still link back to the original blog post, article or press release the corporate/business twitterer intended. The retweets can also spark engagement in the form of questions and comments (both positive and negative). Twitter's digital echo effect combined with its ability to tigger consumer engagement is pure gold in marketing currency.

What Do You Think?

Please share your thoughts on corporate/business tweeting in the comments section. And, as always, thanks for reading.