Twitter best practices for PR professionals

Mary Fletcher Jones provides Twitter tips

Are you using Twitter to market your public relations firm, company, or nonprofit organization?  Here are some guidelines for posting updates on your corporate Twitter account.  These recommendations would also apply to updates you post on your company’s Facebook Page and your LinkedIn Profile.

Keep Focused on a Key Message

Your business probably has a key message (or a set of key messages) that guide the kind of content you post on social networking sites.  For example, the key message for my firm is “creative and affordable marketing solutions for small businesses and nonprofit organizations.”  So, I would not Tweet about television advertising, for example, because that does not fall under the category of affordable marketing solutions for a small business. Think about what kind of information would be most useful and relevant to your followers.

What Kinds of Updates Work Best for a Business on Twitter?

Here are some suggestions for the types of updates to post on Twitter and Facebook Pages for your business.

• Communicate with journalists.  Post links to press releases, articles, and blog entries when they tweet about something related to your industry or issue.
• Respond to consumer questions, concerns, and praise.
• Announce new products, sales, or special offers.
• Request feedback from your followers on new products or approaches.
• Announce new hires, upcoming events, and good news.
• Post links to interesting articles related to your subject matter expertise.
• Never rant or post negative comments.

It may be tempting to lapse into conversational, off-topic updates about movies and the weather and such, but to maintain the integrity of your brand online, and deliver on the promise of your brand to your followers, it’s best to keep the updates relevant and useful.  I notice that when I break my own rules and stray from useful, business-related topics, I lose followers.

That doesn’t mean you can’t ask questions or ask for feedback.  However, that type of extended engagement tends to work better on Facebook Page updates, rather than Twitter, because streams of conversation are so much easier to follow on Facebook than Twitter.

When and How Often to Post Updates on Twitter

You can maintain a brand presence by updating your Twitter account and Facebook Page once or twice or day, during business hours, Monday-Friday.  Many premium accounts post updates with that frequency.  The key is to post updates on the days and during the times when you believe your target audience may be online.

You can tweet more frequently than that, but ideally you should space multiple Twitter updates at least an hour apart.  You can schedule your tweets with a free, third-party Twitter management application, such as Hoot Suite.   But I feel you should have a pretty compelling reason to update your account that frequently.  I don’t recommend live-tweeting events or interviews on your business Twitter account, or really, at all.  It will not help your brand.  A better approach for reporting would be to write a summary of an event or professional development event you attend, and post that short article on your blog (which you can link to in a tweet).

Using Twitter as a Customer Service Channel

The truth is, Twitter is not the most highly optimized platform.  Facebook Page updates may be slightly more so, but only slightly more.  Your well-crafted update and link can also get lost in the immense amount of information posted every second on Twitter, and remember, no one is going to see it, unless they are following you.  And even then, your message can get lost in the stream.  (Search engines do crawl some of it, but very little of it will actually show up in Google, in a way that is meaningful to your business.)

Therefore, the best Twitter update strategy for your business or nonprofit may be to post daily useful updates, but to concentrate your involvement on thoughtful and prompt responses to what others are saying about your brand and products (or industry).  For example, if your brand, company, or issue is mentioned on Twitter, plan for acknowledging and responding with thank you messages, clarifications, and offers of support or help.  To track brand mentions, you can use the Twitter search function.

Anchor Your Twitter Responses with Context

It’s helpful for your followers if you anchor your responses and @ replies on Twitter with meaningful links, retweets, and text. This will make your Tweets meaningful to your followers who may not be privy to the original post that prompted your response.  So, for example, you would not just reply “Thank you, @FletcherPrince!”  You would include some or all of the original tweet, and possibly a link, so your other followers would understand the background behind your message, e.g., “Thank you, @FletcherPrince, for that useful Facebook Page tip http://www.bitly.facebook-tip.”

Keep your Facebook and Twitter updates separate

It’s possible to link your Facebook and Twitter accounts, so that your Facebook Profile or Page is updated each time you tweet.  However, I recommend that you keep your Twitter and Facebook updates separate, that is, that you do not feed your Twitter stream to your Facebook account, so that the updates are identical.  While Twitter and Facebook are both social networks, they really are two very different platforms, with different capabilities, audiences, and tone.  Twitter updates often seem out-of-place on Facebook.

Your comments are welcome!

How are you using Twitter for your public relations firm or personal brand?

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