Ah… sometimes connecting over social media can cause so much disconnect…
Last week, I had a chat with an agency in the digital world which illustrated how to do social media the wrong way. It started innocently enough:
I was followed on Twitter by a local digital agency. The usual Twitter convention now is to say Hi, have a short conversation, exchange a few tweets, and I left the show feeling as though the person behind the Tweet was a good person and thought to merge them into my network of local web workers. However, when I checked into Twitter the next morning, I noticed something odd:
“Thanks for the mention @possesocialmedia.”
Did I mention someone? I wondered and then checking the time stamp, I realized that I couldn’t have mentioned this company in particular: we have just met and this was at 1:30 am when I’m asleep. But I put it out of my mind; after all, bad tweets can sometimes mean Twitter gone bad, not someone in particular.
24 hours went by and then I saw another mention from the same agency showing me to a web page which claimed to be about design errors in the web. I read it, but there was nothing there of any use. Then the next day, the same @ message going to the same web page… hmmm….
When I finally decided to do some back checking, I realized that the agency used a virtual assistant in another time zone to send out tweets overnight. It’s not illegal, but in this case, it trashed the company, at least in my eyes. Can we say ‘Unfollow’ anyone?
So What Went Wrong?
Here’s what’s wrong with this picture (aside from the jarring mentions):
The virtual assistant didn’t check to see what his or her companion had already been tweeting about before conversing with me.
He or she didn’t even research me before spamming me with links I wouldn’t care about.
He didn’t bother to note down what he’d already sent me so he could send me something else.
Sloppy, sloppy, sloppy and it probably cost him or her the job and the employer some losses. It’s fairly simple to have several people tweeting from the same account and still be able to keep up a seamless conversation even if someone else takes over. It just takes a bit of attention, but clearly these people didn’t bother.
How To Avoid This Mistake
Hire the right people.
Virtual assistants are a real boon to a company, but not if they are terrible. Remember that your assistant(s) represent your company and if they do a bad job, your company looks bad. You wouldn’t send someone new to the company to a huge event and you shouldn’t send your newcomer to run your social media.
Make Sure Everyone Understands
If you’re hiring someone new, make sure that they understand exactly what you’re looking for in your tweets. The best thing to do is to make sure that whoever is doing your tweeting has good insights into your company and can deliver relevant tweets to the followers. And make sure you tell your VAs what kind of tone you want, what kind of conversations you want to have, and any other details.
Take it from me: more information is good!
Use the right tool
Use a tool to make it easy to track what your other employees and VAs are saying so that you don’t have crossed wires.
Twitter is a great way to connect with others quickly, but only if it is done right! Take care to make sure that if you aren’t at the wheel, the people who are can work on your Twitter account professionally, seamlessly and appropriately so that Twitter actually works for you, not against you.