7 tricks for your corporate twitter

7 tricks for your corporate twitter
Author: Dmitri Joukov
27 November 2009
Our twitter @turbomilk is one of the most popular corporate twitters in Russia. The password to the twitter is available to all our staff but there is just a few of us posting. And, as it happens, most of the posts are coming from me. After more than a year of observations and experiments involving real people I came up with a range of plain tricks on how to make twitter more interesting and popular.
Once we even got a chance to take a fresh look at our twits while being in a small company of little-known people ??? the room was filled with stifled giggling??? So we realized that we should carry on like that. So, what is that you should do in a corporate twitter?
1. Follow others but not everyone
If your company does not have twitter, get one and start with a simple algorithm: follow your friends and several corporate twitters of the subject close to yours. Some of them may be curious about what you are going to write there. Thus you will get your first followers, i.e. readers. Avoid following everyone ??? it is just bad manners closely related to spam.
2. Keep It Simple, Smarty
One hundred and fourty symbols is very little if you start writing in legalese with complicated grammar. Keep it simple and you will realize that even such short messages can serve a lot of useful and, what???s even more important, clearly stated information.Being simple, clear and concise is a rather useful ability and twitter is out there helping you master it.
3. Everybody got news
Start with your company news: new products or services available to end users, new offices or outlets opened, events and discounts, working hours over weekends or holidays. With time you will have a better understanding what your followers like the most.
4. Be brave ??? experiment
Most users twit about what they are up to, or something like what they just ate. Your company also can do this: tell your followers about the project that your company is engaged in, vacation plans of your co-workers (names and locations) or where most of your staff goes for lunch. You will most likely find someone who would want to respond, maybe because they are working on similar projects, planning a trip to a similar location or dining right next to your table. Start writing things ??? experiment! The life will show you the way and, trust me, you will always be able to find someone who will be interested in your twits.
5. Talk to users
Demonstrate to everyone that you are not only writing but also reading and, what???s important, you care. Make public replies to the key questions of your readers but do not abuse this practice, a list of messages containing just replies looks flat. Direct messages can be useful in tricky situations, remember to follow your respondent, otherwise he will not be able to respond to you.
Closing the list are two bonuses that helped us make our twitter more popular.
6. Jokes
Plain and dumb laugh-it-out-yourself jokes are the cornerstone of turbomilk???s twitter. Humor just like violence and sex is a rather popular thing. We lack sex and violence in our work but we generate tones of jokes in the process of our corporate communication. Only the top rated and mildly corny jokes make it to air of our twitter. Most of that have been heavily retwitted, and this, as you know, is the best way to expand your audience.
7. Freebie
The word itself sounds like sugar for a mere twitterer. Make a small web page with some kind of contest. You can make people compete for anything: from a set of corporate souvenirs to expensive home appliances. Ask the visitors to twit about your twitter with a simple twit and a direct link to your promo page in order to participate. For one t-shirt a week we have increased the number of our followers by nearly 50% in one month.
Do not forget to sign up for twitter and subscribe to us at @turbomilkcom. That???s our twitter in English.