The other weekend I had coffee with an old friend. We were discussing mobile phones and technology and got onto the subject of Twitter. She asked me to explain how Twitter works. I did so but instantly knew from her reaction that that was where her knowledge of Twitter would end. She’s a technophobe, a busy chartered surveyor with a big job covering South West England and there’s no way she’s going to start spending her time thinking about what to write in 140 characters.
A few days later I was teaching a client how to use Twitter. She gets it but there was definitely a mixed reception from her work colleagues and a few chuckles.
These two instances were a good lesson for me. It’s easy for social media experts to wax lyrical about the key role Twitter has to play in any 2010 marketing strategy. But there has to be some substance behind it. Because Twitter hasn’t been around for long case studies of fantastic success stories are limited. Any Twitter strategy needs to be well thought out in terms of how it fits into other marketing initiatives, what does a company wants to gain from Twitter, who it wants to interact with and which staff are going to Tweet.
And if your staff are currently uninterested, it’s important that you brief them with background information, benefits, examples and training on how to use Twitter. Social media is not all about being social online – you still need to be social offline too.
