Twitter is big, popular and a revolutionary piece in the social media world. Because of this, many businesses are trying to tap into this little gem to try and enhance their business.
Is Twitter as healthy for your business as it seems? Well, I think it really depends. It’s kind of like trying to lose weight by eating only vegetables and fruits (using Twitter) without exercising (exercising care). You might get some positive results (successfully lost some weight), but often, the results could be the opposite of what you expected (e.g. you get sick because you lack meat and proteins), making the whole situation even worse than before.
Twitter is like that. In fact, it’s the same for any social media tool.
I’d like to illustrate my point by touching on a few examples involving Twitter.
Examples of good use of Twitter?
BakerTweet tells the world when something hot and fresh has just come out of the oven. People love it, and so do the businesses.
Arts organizations use Twitter to sell out tonight’s shows. Again, everyone is happy.
Examples of bad use of Twitter?
Michelle Phan is the #1 most subscribed female guru for beauty and makeup on YouTube. Her talent and passion for makeup and beauty earned her over one million fans, leading her to her recent steep rise to fame and a position to work for Lancome. Unfortunately, she is one public figure who does not know how to maintain a professional image on social media. On Twitter, where she is followed by close to 150,000 fans, she posts all sorts of status updates from her personal life without second thoughts and responds to negative comments in an immature manner. Once, she retweeted a negative comment by a 16-year-old girl, causing a flood of personal attacks and cyberbullying from her fans at the girl, who meant no harm, and public anger from those who were simply disappointed by Michelle’s childish act. Other times, Michelle, being a Christian, has posted religious comments which also raised debates from her fans, as well as posted updates about her dying bunny, which also aroused controversy where many people were questioning her attitude and cruelty for the pet. Her Twitter fiascos have lost her many fans, and many associate her image negatively with Lancome, who she now works for.
Kenneth Cole‘s recent tweet about the events in Cairo also angered the public. Not only did he use poor humour, he tried to promote his brand’s products along with it. Many people were disgusted by the distasteful humour and what appeared to be an unsympathetic attitude.
Even worse: Chrysler‘s Twitter account accidentally dropped the F-Bomb in a recent status update because an employee apparently confused his personal Twitter account with that of the company’s.
Oops.
The public’s reaction? Probably no anger or bitterness which Michlle and Kenneth had to face, but you’ve got to admit that it is quite funny and embarrassing.
The moral of the story?
There really is no black and white, right or wrong answers when it comes to Twitter. Things can go wrong whether you are using Twitter for professional or personal purposes. All that matters is that you watch what you say and be really careful with your choice of words… as you can see from the examples. Twitter isn’t exactly that healthy.
Excellent post. I really liked the vegetable analogy.