I'm not professing to be a Twitter or social media expert. But I am knowledgeable about marketing, and have been Tweeting since last September. Until more recently, I've been more of a Twitter lurker, which is perfectly OK for this somewhat voyeuristic--yet very personal--communication tool.
Now that I'm hooked on Twitter, and have made it a part of my daily existence, I have to admit that it took me a few months to "get" it. And I'm thinking that quite a few organizations out there aren't getting Twitter either. I'll focus on music organizations since that's a large chunk of my Following list.
My advice to music organizations is to think about MAKING CONNECTIONS first. How can your Twitter streams be used in the most effective way to connect your organization to more people? How can you more fully develop your organization's brand using Twitter to:
1.) Share your mission
2.) Inform and inspire
3.) Entertain
4.) Create dialogue
5.) Build community
6.) Get people involved so they care more deeply about what you do
None of the above is possible if all you're doing is using Twitter to blast out concert updates and discount offers! Sure, it's an easy way to get that information out into the world, but it shouldn't be the focus.
Singer/songwriter John Mayer addressed this issue when he announced via Twitter last week, "Just signed a deal to sell ad space inside my Tweets. Now it's time to celebrate with one of the many low sodium soups from Campbells!" I had to laugh because it seemed so ridiculous and unauthentic. Well...perhaps that's how orgs come off when they're pushing the latest sales offer multiple times a week.
My advice is to establish an authentic voice, a voice that speaks from the heart about who your organization is and the connections it wants to make. And then we can ride this paradigm-shifting wave to a more engaged and informed audience down the road. The thought is exciting, isn't it?
UPDATE: John Mayer's recent Tweet: The Associated Press called my publicist to ask if I was really endorsed by Campbell's Soup. Mission accomplished.
