There has been quite a bit of chatter on blogs about Twitter and whether the microblogging tool carries any value beyond telling the planet what you had for lunch. I have especially heard sales and marketing leaders in B2B organizations argue over this.
Based on my personal experience, Twitter and other social media tools can be extremely effective – if managed properly. How in the world does one manage social media outlets? Hours and days of peoples’ time have been wasted by people staring at tweets pop up on their screen – this is not proper management. There are lots of tools (I use TweetDeck and TweetBeep) to set up a set of search criteria to identify people who are likely using or considering using my product. I don’t stare at these tools indefinitely throught the day – they deliver consolidated views of what’s happening in the twitterverse that I have deemed relevant to me. Based on the alerts I get from these tools, I can choose to respond, forward, re-tweet or ignore. Responding to tweets in a very helpful (not pressure selling) way is an excellent way to develop a trusted advisor position out there. Many times, you will find your assistance rewarded with an “atta boy” or thank you tweet or a re-tweet acknowledging your assistance. That’s just like a referral in the traditional world!
The challenge I run into now is how to make this scale. In a company with 100s or 1000s of sales and marketing people, how does the company choose to engage at a personal level, yet scale the benefits of twitter? That is yet to be seen, but I see very little downside in getting out there and lending a helping hand wherever your expertise lies. Worst case, you make a friendly acquaintance on line.
Have you found ways your B2B firm can scale its presence on Twitter while maintaining a human persona? I’d love to hear your story.
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