Twitter is a different beast for many companies who are used to speaking to an audience instead of having to actively listen. Are you willing to be transparent and quick to respond to questions, concerns, or even criticism? It’s not just marketing, but may also include service/support and other aspects of your business. Now I’ll admit that I’m a big proponent of Twitter as a business tool, but it’s not required in your social media toolkit. These are some of the reasons why you may want to run the other way from Twitter.

“How much effort are we talking?”
Start small, maybe an hour a day, but be flexible so the time/resource commitment can expand if needed. I like to describe it as a culture of, “Oh, enough about me — how can I help you?” Twitter is full of smart and giving people once you learn how to find them. Notice I didn’t say “companies.” People in this space do business based on trust they establish with other people. That means you need to be willing and able to inject some humanity or authentic voice. If you have multiple people tweet on the same account, it’s best to append each message with initials, like, “^dj.”

“What will I talk about? Nobody cares what I’m having for lunch.”
It’s that personality thing: you can’t be all business, all the time. Shannon Latham of Latham Hi-Tech Seeds (@LathamSeeds) offered a great example of this at the recent 140 Conference in Des Moines. She forced herself to break away from a straight journalistic writing style on their corporate blog and tweets. It wasn’t until she worked in personal anecdotes and a few of her favorite recipes that she noticed more blog traffic, comments, and interest.

You don’t need to be an expert at the technologies — if you relate well with people, you’ll do just fine.

“I want to see what my competitors are doing on Twitter, but I’m worried if I follow them they’ll think I’m spying.”
Guess what? Everybody’s spying on Twitter. (more…)