At the end of a column in the new york times last sunday, Nicholas Kristof mentions that although University 'professors have a growing number of tools available to educate the public, from online courses to blogs to social media' that they 'have been slow to cast pearls through Twitter and Facebook'. The notion that as an institution, be that a commercial business, a university, political or news outlet, you have to be on twitter is becoming more common. As the song by Ben Walker goes 'You're no one if you're not on twitter'. Twitter themselves have dedicated several pages to helping businesses people and others from different sectors get the most out of twitter. So, how do you use twitter effectively?
Non-Profit Twitter Use
According to an article published by Lovejoy, Waters and Saxtion (2012) in the Public Relations Review journal entitled 'Engaging stakeholders through Twitter: How nonprofit organizations are getting more out of 140 characters or less' we're doing it wrong. Well, at least the non-profit section of us. The authors analyzed the use of Twitter among 73 nonprofit organizations over the course of a month, resulting in 4,655 tweets total. These are all the organizations with twitter accounts listed in the 'Nonprofit Times 100' report, which lists the top 100 non-educational nonprofit organizations based on revenue.
They found that once they had followed these organizations with their newly made account, only 17 followed the researchers twitter account back. They remark that 'an organization that does not follow anyone gives the impression that they do not want to engage in a dialogue.' Which seems like a fair assessment from the perspective of the consumer. If you follow an organization but do not get followed back then what does that say about the organizations communication flow? That it is a one-way street. Do you feel any mutual engagement when you subscribe to a newsletter? No, of course not. Following a user back, even if you have no intention of reading their tweets, at least gives them the feeling your organization is interested in them.
"Follow your followers, even if you don't actually read their tweets"
Some organizations were found to only follow those they found interesting or were affiliated with them. Which seems to make sense right? Because those are the tweets that might actually be meaningful to your company. But you're not on there as an individual user, your twitter account is an extension of your public image. You're on there, or should be, for your consumers. Make a different account if you want to track interesting tweets that isn't publicly associated with your organization.
"Don't treat your public
organization's account as a private individual's account"
Twitter: New Media Being Used The Old Way
The authors stipulate that Twitter is a tool powerful for its relationship-building possibility but find that PR practitioners aren't using it that way. Instead it's not being used much differently than media that has no user-interaction possibilities: 'rather than using public messages to reply to other Twitter users or connecting to others by re-tweeting messages that may be helpful to others, nonprofits are primarily using the site to relay information using one-way communication'.
It seems counter-intuitive to not take advantage of the tools provided by twitter to engage your customers in a dialogue, or at least be perceived as such. Especially in an environment where social media has become the standard and users have come to expect interaction through it. For instance, Twitter itself highlights the great power of engagement with followers for fundraising and their five essential tips include several ways to engage with followers as well. Yet here we are, old-fashionably broadcasting tweets onto the internet with little attempt of reciprocate communication. Time to update our manuals and engage the public?
It seems counter-intuitive to not take advantage of the tools provided by twitter to engage your customers in a dialogue, or at least be perceived as such. Especially in an environment where social media has become the standard and users have come to expect interaction through it. For instance, Twitter itself highlights the great power of engagement with followers for fundraising and their five essential tips include several ways to engage with followers as well. Yet here we are, old-fashionably broadcasting tweets onto the internet with little attempt of reciprocate communication. Time to update our manuals and engage the public?
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