Social Media @ Work

Can Twitter cure cancer? I’m still waiting for someone to start a feed that might. After beginning the @filmlinc feed for the Film Society of Lincoln Center and one of my own, I’ve gotten hopelessly hooked, and I keep looking for new and novel applications for Twitter. Maybe I should start one for the food coop I’m volunteering with. Perhaps Twitter is a great place to try out that new business idea I’ve been fantasizing about. Maybe my dog should be on Twitter.

I don’t want to get carried away, but I did want to get some advice from people who have successfully deployed more than one Twitter feed and kept them growing. I went straight to these experts:

• Seamus Condron, who’s at the helm of the hugely successful @mediabistro feed, as well as his own (@seamuscondron) and @journocafe, which focuses on the evolution of journalism and its convergence with community.
• Laura Fitton, who as @pistachio is well known amongst the Twitter community for her insightful Tweets, co-wrote the “Twitter for Dummies” book and consults with businesses on the successful deployment of social media tools.
• Barry Hoggard, who delivers vital news to artists as @bhoggard, @culturepundits, and @aczine.

I found that each prolific Twitterer had different strategies for successfully manning multiple feeds, but each had advice that could well serve anyone who is using Twitter for brand-building.

Know your objectives

We all know Twitter is growing a blistering pace; far faster than Facebook, and in contrast to its older brethren with micro-targeted ad placements, it’s much more difficult to buy yourself influence. Your boss, dry cleaner and Uncle Bob are all signing up for accounts, but a little strategic thinking sets the savvy Twitter user out from the pack: a cognizance that a specific strategy will bring followers, and results.

“Be clear about what you’re trying to accomplish with Twitter,” Fitton told me. “Focus on the tactic as a tactic. For instance in the case of a nonprofit, you wouldn’t judge the success of a fundraiser based on how many Twitter followers you picked up. An executive using Twitter to keeps his staff updated is an example of a tactic that I think really helps a company.”

Use micro-interactions for major results

Over the course of a year, Seamus Condron has watched the Twitter feed he runs for @mediabistro grow from 100 to over 40,000 followers. “The core goal was to provide resources to the media community through content from all over the web, but also conversation about that content,” Seamus explained via email.

Early on, @mediabistro adopted a tactic that has since worked well for big brands like Jet Blue and Starbucks. “We’ve perfected the practice of stalking 2.0, where someone might say something positive or negative about the brand, we’d respond within minutes. And they’d be genuinely shocked, then really happy. People like to know the companies they engage engage them.”

Don’t be afraid to ask for help

While maintaining three feeds delivering art news and resources to the Twitscape, Barry Hoggard has his hands on all three but gets some help on @aczine. He explains: “aczine is primarily for promoting our own listings and zine articles, but we’re starting to use it a lot to list things we don’t have a place for such as calls for submissions or one-time events such as lectures and panels.”

Event- and resource-rich Twitter feeds can often be well-served by multiple voices at the helm. At @filmlinc, I’ve recently been joined by the invaluable @claraque, who brings his own perspective and voice to the proceedings. If you’ve been holding tightly to that brand feed, you might be surprised how much new blood helps open the door to new possibilities for your feed-and new followers.

Decide: Are you your brand, yourself, or a little of both?

Among the prolific Twitterers, I found lots of differentiation on the issue of running a personal (name) feed or a business one. To Laura Fitton, “Twitter is the new golf course,” so it’s important to be a singular personality on this opportunity-rich social scene. “The more personal I’ve been on my feed, the more business relationships I keep up,” she explained.

As the voice of Mediabistro on Twitter, Seamus Condron discovered one of the pitfalls of “becoming a brand”: “A couple months ago I was really sick with the flu for four days,” he said, “and the Twitter feed was silent. Our followers thought it was the end of days.”

“Each person needs to find their own comfort level,” Fitton told me, and each of the three people I talked to demonstrates, in different ways, how much value a unique voice brings to the conversation. And the answer to the question of whether you should begin a Twitter feed for any brand or sub-brand may well be summed up simply: can you be unique, and can you be valuable?

This post is tagged aczine, artcat, Barry Hoggard, culturepundits, Laura Fitton, mediabistro, pistachio, Seamus Condron