It seems all my recent rants have been about Twitter and I'm sorry, I'm at it again.
It was only a few days ago I ranted about people taking over their own Twitter accounts; they don't realize - though goodness knows why - that Twitter is marketing and advertising and not to be left to your intern, your parrot or your dog.
And lo and behold, yesterday I was confronted with a great example.
We had created, built up and run a Twitter account for a client - a restaurant. We had just over 2,500 followers. Mostly, the followers were local people, food writers, food bloggers ... all good.
Almost every day, we were asked questions via Twitter, and we build up some great relationships with followers. I was, I have to say, pretty damn proud of the relationships we'd created and we had some major influencers on the team of followers. We talked to people a lot, thanked them for positive comments - we rarely posted 'sales messages' because Twitter is about communication and relationships, it's not a billboard.
So - you can probably tell what's coming - yesterday morning we handed the account over to the client so their goldfish could take over.Twenty four hours ago.
The account has lost fifty followers.
This suprised even me at first. I knew that they'd lose followers if the relationships weren't kept up but fifty in twenty four hours? But the more I thought about it, the more I realized that it makes sense. Twitter is an instant medium - people expect answers quickly.
Let's take the Las Olas Boulevard Twitter for example. People ask me daily for recommendations (where to eat, where to buy certain items etc) and they expect a reply within minutes. That's because they are actually on the street. An answer in three hours just won't do.
So I'm having a bet with myself. It might as well be $100 since I can't lose. I can envisage what's going to happen now:
The parrot/goldfish/dog will bung out the occasional sales message.
They won't respond to questions and comments (or not in a timely manner anyway).
They won't interact.
Yes, throwing out a selling-type message once a week should do the trick.
And then do you know what will happen? The parrot/goldfish/dog will go to the owner and say "I don't know why I'm bothering with this Twitter thing. It doesn't work". The owner will shake his head sadly and say "You seem to be right. Well, get back into your bowl/onto your perch/into your kennel. I've no idea why Tangled Spider even started us with Twitter. It doesn't work at all".
So it's OUR fault. good, eh?
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Update July 18
I really should pack in this Tangled Spider lark and become a fortune teller. Since the client took over their Twitter account, they have lost 76 followers. The parrot/goldfish dog has put out one rather illiterate sales message.
I'm sorry, I shouldn't .... but hehe...
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