So you’re a brand right, and you think it might be a wise idea to start up a Twitter account?

There are ongoing debates about whether brands should be on Twitter or not. I’m not going to enter debate, this post is intended to guide those brands who have decided that they want to be on Twitter. (Although I believe that you can be. The reason for this “can be” is because ultimately it is an individuals choice whether to follow you or not, or even ban you.)

JWT is a Cape Town based advertising agency, and one of their premises that I’ve always valued is that “advertising needs to stop interrupting what people are interested in, and be what people are interested in.” Therefore if people are interested in the brand and what you have to say, they will by choice follow you, and therefore: make damn sure that you are interesting.

My first recommendation to any brand about to embark on building their online personality and presence using Twitter as simply another tool to do that, is to:

1. Are you going to listen or contribute? If the latter, what are you going to say? Determine what your motives and intentions are? What is your strategy? (This of course is only one execution in your larger social media strategy)

If you’re going to listen:

Twitter is a great way to see what has been said about your brand – but you don’t really need an account for that, just use one of your staffers who are on Twitter to search for your brand and you will see how many mentions you have. You can also check out #brandplus or #brandminus set up by Mike Stopforth to see if you’ve had any positive or negative feedback already.

As part of a larger social media and reputation management strategy its a super tool to observe discussions regarding your brand. Particularly when you are launching a campaign and you have factored in responsive marketing based on the buzz you intend it to create.

If you’re going to contribute:

Twitter is a great way to add value to your followers, by providing them with content that is worthwhile. This is where the thinking part comes in. You have to prove yourself as an entity that people want and choose to follow, because the information you contribute is seen as valuable.

My recommendation is that your first job is to merely listen and learn. Understand the culture and use what you learn as cues to continue. Caution: don’t become voyeuristic – you will get hauled over the coals.

Take Vida as an example, simply because it is tweeted about fairly often. If Vida were to realise the extent to which they are mentioned (working on it), they might like to offer a complimentary coffee or loaded points on their loyalty card to the first 10 people who tweeted back to them. That’s one form of value.

Valuable content also includes, news of store openings, product news, new releases, information where I am the ‘first’ to know, offering insight into the industry, offer valuable links to discussions regarding your product or industry, trends, predictions, sponsorship news, your social responsibility projects etc. Caution: don’t limit your activity to tweeting about discount deal after discount deal. Your brand won’t survive.

I could think of nothing worse than following a brand and all they start telling me is content that is unrelated to me. Ensure that the content you post is relevant geographically, or as specific to people’s interests as possible, which then implies that you may need multiple twitter accounts for one brand. e.g. Ford.

As an example, assuming I were a BMW fan, I may be interested in following BMW, but the truth is that I actually would prefer to be following BMW off-road bikes, and in particular, the F650, I am actually only interested in deals, gatherings, tips, hints and trips based from Cape Town.

Another example, you may find that I am searching for property in the City Bowl, perhaps then you have a channel for city bowl listings – and I can unfollow when I decide to.

Twitter is super for campaigns too, include that into your strat, if you have a campaign running, perhaps set up an account particularly for that campaign, and with honest intent be ready to receive feedback and respond timeously.

Ah timeously, this then means that you need to factor your social media and online reputation management into your budget, ensuring that your brand or marketing managers are twitter fluent, and perhaps already engaged. Bear in mind, that every response is a direct reflection of your brand, therefore ensure that the individual who is tasked to manage the twitter account, understands your brand and your social media objectives and communication plan intrinsically.

Right so the South African twitter community is growing beautifully you can find out who is on twitter sa (started by Eve Dmochowska) here: and again evidence of the school of thought that brands shouldn’t be on twitter is shown here: but this will grow too.

Happy Tweeting.