I was at a networking event with a couple of friends some weeks back. They were quite excited to meet someone they’d been tweeting with for several months. He’d inspired with them with some compelling thoughts on his particular area of expertise and they’d built up quite a relationship with him. Excited to finally put a name to a face they introduced themselves to him. Sadly he had no idea who they were, despite the dialogue they’d had.
Why? Because he’d been paying is VA to tweet for him.
My friends were slightly less than impressed. All that goodwill he’d built up on twitter had been shattered because they realised that he wasn’t for real. I mean of course he was – all the expertise had been written by him, but the dialogue felt like a charade.
Contrast that with The Home Show’s George Clarke. I’m a bit of a fan and I’d tweeted him (along with half the female population) a couple of times. I didn’t expect him to remember who I was. And yet when I met him at the Homebuilding and Renovation show at Earls Court back in October he couldn’t have been nicer. He recognised me from my photo on twitter -and we had a nice chat! I left an even bigger fan than when I arrived!
Here is someone who probably should be getting his PA to tweet for him, but who realises the power of personal PR. I know who made the more lasting impression on me.
So that begs the question… If twitter can help you build relationships (as long as you’re the one actually building the relationship), position you as an expert (as long as it is your expertise that’s being tweeted) and drive traffic to your site (as long as what you’re saying is worth hearing) then is it ever ok to pay someone to tweet for you?
I think the short answer is yes and no. I honestly believe that if you’re on twitter as yourself, then the tweets must come from you. I think tweets that come on behalf of you, whoever you are, are empty if you’re paying someone to do them. Ultimately, people will “find you out” and that’ll do more harm than good.
But if you’re tweeting as a company or organisation then I think that’s a different matter. Quite frankly most of the companies I follow tweet nothing more than blatant links (at best) – spam at worst. They could do with someone who knows what they’re doing to tweet properly for them! And there’s not the risk of “finding you out” because we don’t always expect one single person to be tweeting behind a company.
What do you think?
Hi Fiona! We met in Ewell and had a chat over the phone regarding my website.
I just wanted to react on your post and say that in my opinion, twitter is 100% about building relationships and sharing expertise medium, therefore I find it totally unacceptable to have someone else twitting for someone else. I would feel cheated and would definitely lose trust in the person. As far as I am concerned the relationship would be built between me and whoever is twitting.
Thanks for stopping by Peggy. I agree, it’s absolutely about relationships and sharing expertise. It’s hard when we’re all so short on time, but I do think you get out what you put in.
Fiona great question — it’s probably a dilemma for a lot of companies who feel they don’t have time to put into tweeting. But I’d advise them to get a bit of startup guidance upfront to keep the time investment manageable. Put in a few hours at the start with somebody sitting next to you who knows what they’re doing, and then you can maintain it yourself going forward, even if you are busy, with a commitment of about 15 minutes twice a day. Although as you say, the less you put in, the less you get out. It’s important to member that twitter activity isn’t ancillary to your core mission, its core. If the company can buy that (and they should) finding time won’t be hard.
I think your question can be asked with the “do unto others” test. If you’d hate to discover someone you were tweeting with was an imposter, don’t do it to anyone else.
My company does twitter listening — helping you have bigger ears by listening out for and steering you to conversations you might want to get involved in personally — and that passes my “do unto others” test. We don’t and wouldn’t impersonate…it’s just wrong, and think of the potential damage to the brand, as your anecdote reveals above.
Sheila Averbuch — ENN
It’s a tough one, since we are all so time poor these days and there are so many aspects to marketing a business. Social media is just one element, but with so many sites, it is hard to juggle. I think it is also easy to get sucked in and before you know it you have spent far too long reading the tweets of those you are following, clicking on links etc.
However, I agree that it is all about building relationships and you miss out on the opportunity to do that if you hand over your account to a third party. You also lose the chance of reacting quickly to something – sometimes it is the way a complaint is handled, for example, that gives a business a good reputation.
I agree that it is better to get some help on agreeing a strategy and some tactics and then manage your own account, and get going with those tweets!
trust is the foundation to any brand… end of
Hello, I have set up Twitter accounts for a couple of business and “managed” their tweets initially until the whole thing could be handed over. Not everybody gets it and some people need hand holding to build the confidence and the knowledge of how to tweet, what to do, what to avoid etc However there is a big difference between helping a time-poor entrepreneur and outright faking it.
Your article made me laugh as it reminded me of my years as a PA and how many emails, letters and correspondance I was required to reply to as if I was my boss simply because she simply did not have enough time to email everyone. On several instances this involved embarassing moments when someone would thank her for a gift she sent or some kind words she had emailed and of course she would know nothing about it! Web 2.0 is no different.