UK Internet traffic to Twitter ““ the popular microblogging service – has increased 10-fold over past last 12 months. With celebrities like Philip Schofield talking about the site on This Morning, and Jonathan Ross chatting about it with Stephen Fry on his show, growth is set to continue for the short term. For PR, Twitter is an incredibly powerful tool and respected bloggers in the US have gone as far as saying “Get into Twitter or get outta PR“.
So you join the trendsetters”¦ what next? Someone’s following you? Help! What should I say? Here’s Shiny Red’s top five do’s and don’ts for using Twitter as a communications professional:
Do
- Follow journalists ““ from tech, to national and broadcast press, there are a whole bunch using Twitter to gather information for stories, being able to respond to their request is helping them out. There’s a good list here.
- Follow team-mates and clients ““ being able to throw your client an off-the-cuff message, even if it’s unrelated to work, shows that you’re plugged into their concerns
- Keep your profile open ““ while you can keep your updates private, this goes against the flow in social media and will stunt the growth of your network. It also makes replying to people easier which is a key part of using the site.
- Reciprocate most followers ““ if someone is following you it means they are interested in what you have to say. Unless the account is simply a spam feed, there’s no harm in following their updates… you can always unfollow them later.
- Make use of Twitter tools ““ It’s not just about the page, you can also search for tweets about your campaigns or interests; or expand your network using add-ons like Mr Tweet.
Don’t
- Forget it’s a public forum ““ While you might hate certain jobs your’ doing for a client, one US PR got into serious trouble for badmouthing his client’s home town.
- Be afraid to talk about work ““ If you’ve got a great story, why not share it with your followers? If they like it, they will pass it on as well. But don’t use it simply as a promotional tool ““ that’s not what it is.
- Worry about how many followers you have ““ Ideally your network should grow organically, so don’t go off and follow 3,000 people just in the hope that if they return the favour you’ll look popular.
- Be annoying ““ sure, mix personal and business, but don’t end up posting the minutiae of life or being known for always having the last word.
- Give up ““ Plenty of people “don’t get” Twitter first off… I was one of them, but if you keep going, you will find a way that it suits you and your working style.
