Archive for April, 2009

I’ve been spending lots and lots of time on Twitter lately (@vococreative’s the name if you’d like to follow) and am continually amazed by the creativity and passion being brought to this deceptively inane program by its millions of users.

Unfortunately, all the Twitter hype is made even more confusing by a growing universe of Twittiquette that is very, very easy to violate.  My recent Social Media for Mere Mortals class has prompted me to think about the most blatant violations I’ve seen of late.

Here are the top 3 Twitter mistakes I see on a regular basis:

1.  An all-or nothing mentality.  As with other marketing attempts, people tend to go whole hog or not-at-all.  The result:  schizophrenic tweets.  If all you talk about is yourself and your business, there’s no room for dialogue or relationships.  If all you do is shout out to your friends with endless @ messages, there’s no way to get a good sense of who you are.  If you tweet 92 times in one day and 2 the next, we can’t figure out what the heck you’re doing.

2.  Bad etiquette.  Calling out other users for flame wars?  Tasteless.  Failing to credit others when you retweet a message?  Lame.  Forgetting to use the @ symbol before names on a regular basis?  Thoughtless.  Auto-DMs and spammy repeat postings?  Passe.  Twitter etiquette is still a developing field, but it’s definitely becoming more standardized.  If you can’t bother to take the time to familiarize yourself with the lay of the land, should you really be tweeting at all?

3. Timidity.  In a world where  follow count is king and it’s all about who you know, there’s no point in being bashful.  Go ahead, make some friends and followers!  Sitting back and keeping your Twitterverse to your known friends closes you off from the wacky fun that is Twitter.  And it won’t do your business any favors, either.  Be bold!  Have fun!  See you in Tweet Town!

What Twitter mistakes tick you off?  Sound off in the comments!

Image courtesy of grendelkhan

Thanks for hanging in during the hiatus…I’m feeling much refreshed after a severely needed vacation.  We will return to our regularly scheduled blog postings on Monday.  In the meantime, here’s a drive-by glance at this week’s two biggest stories in marketing and brand strategy:

Twitter is on fire:  You know Twitter’s hitting the bigtime when a Twitter race between two public entities is front page news, the local news starts running fluff pieces on Twitter, and Oprah, ambassadress of all that will be embraced eventually, finally relents and throws a few Tweets to her followers.  (We’re loving Twitter here, but all this coverage is a huge sign to be on the lookout for The Next Thing…)

Crisis management is a whole new ballgame, folks:  The nasty Domino’s YouTube scandal is only the latest in a series of online gaffes and frantic scrambling.  (Remember Tropicana, the Motrin Moms, and the Whole Foods CEO’s lame astroturfing?)  Ironically, the big D apparently plans to use social media and SEO to improve the image spit upon by its own employees.  Though the best offense is always a good defense, it’s fascinating to see crisis management adapt to these let-it-all-hang-0ut times…who will be the next victim?

What was your favorite story this week?