If you are tweeting for business, a split personality and a less is more strategy works best.
We’ve received several pings from readers who wanted to hear more based on Kenna’s post about tweeting for business. After three months in the Twitter box, I’m ready to weigh in on my observations — and share four pieces of advice from the peanut gallery.
This isn’t for sissies. Unless you’re a social butterfly by nature, business tweeting gets in the way of your day job. Unfortunately, if you don’t have consistent presence, your company tends to fall off the digital radar. This begs a conundrum worthy of a paraphrase from Hamlet: “Whether ’tis better to have an inconsistent Twitter presence or bag the whole concept?” For me, the answer lies in the difference between volume and value.
Less is more. Companies that yak ad nauseum creates problems when you are on the receiving side of the Twitter fence. Based on my list of tweeting companies, less would certainly be more. Companies that bombard me with a constant stream of disconnected tweets makes it difficult for me to figure out what really matters to the company – which leads me to my third tweeting gripe.
Tell me something I want to know. The business Twitter landscape is becoming a vast wasteland where companies push “Google-esque” links instead of sharing knowledge or information in a teeny package. I’d rather know, for example, that a company received an award or launched a new product, than being inundated with links to general purpose articles and stories I don’t have time to explore. For business, tweeting should be all about creating the company’s brand one drip at a time, not proving that you can make it through a Harvard Business Review without going into a coma. Simply put, when business is the issue, your personal epiphany doesn’t create my need to know. This, in turn, leads me to my last peanut gallery entry.
Split personalities work best. The most effective Tweeters are those who have a business and personal persona – and keep them separate. This allows me to keep up with the business side of their world, and eliminates getting alerts when their 3 year old is successfully poddy trained. Sure, I appreciate that this is a milestone in their life. For me, too much information.
OK, I could change my opinions after another six months wading through the Twitter landscape — but I wouldn’t hold my breath. That said, I’ll check in later as behaviors play out. After all, the Web is nothing if not a moving target.

#1 by Lindy - October 13th, 2009 at 04:11
Hi, I am working for a bathrooms company in the UK and have started a twitter account (look under bathroomtrade if you’re interested). Anyway, I’m finding it hard not to sound too salesy, but also trying to provide information about our deals (which are good!). So I’m a bit stuck. Do people (looking to buy bathrooms) want to know about deals, or are they interested in developments, how-to articles, new things, etc? Anyone have any advice?
#2 by Marty Gruhn - October 13th, 2009 at 08:10
Dell’s experience shows that tweeting special deals can generate impressive revenue. See Kenna’s post at http://siteiq.net/wordpress/?p=440 for a link to Dell’s blog about its success. If you are selling, that would be the first way to capture and harvest potential buyers. In my experience, tweets fall of the radar pretty quickly, so unless you have a good sized set of followers, tweeting links to how to articles could end up going into a black hole.
#3 by indonesian food recipe - October 26th, 2009 at 23:47
it sound great, i have several web and after read your artikel, i a gree with your opinion:) thx for giving me advice
#4 by Jon Kash - November 17th, 2009 at 19:28
Great Post…useful information
#5 by Physician Recruiter - November 24th, 2009 at 22:35
Hi,
I found your blog on google and read a few of your other posts. I just added you to my Google News Reader. Keep up the good work. Look forward to reading more from you in the future.