1. It gives the impression that you are a forward thinking company
When your employees are Tweeting during the day, we assume you’ve had the ‘Twitter’ talk and now you are confident that the people you hire won’t waste time Tweeting nonsense, but actually, over time, will help improve the perception of your brand.
2. It builds trust among your employees
If your employees know that they are trusted to be on Twitter daily and again, that they won’t waste time, they will feel more positive about working for you. After all, it takes a trusting boss to allow people on Twitter.
3. When $#%& hits the fan, your employees and their tribe will be there for you
Almost every company has negative references made to them from time to time or an argument or two on Twitter. The most embarrassing occurrence would be when you have no one backing you up. If you don’t let your employees Tweet, they will NEVER stick up for you in a Tweet-fight. You’re stronger in numbers and when things go wrong, you definitely will want the support of the people you have surrounding you.
4. Your company learning how to be social in public is one of the most important lessons to learn in the coming years
The companies that are excelling right now understand how to be social. Their employees may make the odd mistake here and there but while Tweeting regularly, what most of us don’t understand is ‘what’ we are learning to do. Being a social organization will be an advantage in the coming years, I think we underestimate how important this will be. You’ve been warned.
5. Subconsciously people start to think of your ‘business’ as a person
“No one loves a company, people love people.”
The further away you can get from the corporate, business-like mentality of profit and loss statements, earnings and competitive advantage, the closer you get to humanizing your business. The business side of your business is boring. Let me say that again. The business side of your business is boring. Let the people who work for you, who have an attitude, represent you in public. Take a chance on someone. This reminds me of a Richard Branson quote that’s on the wallpaper of my laptop; “When people are placed in positions slightly above what they expect, they are apt to excel.”
6. You generally like the companies people who are on Twitter work for
Whatever service or product I need I’d much rather find someone on Twitter who can provide it. Then there is a chance they may just Tweet me – a glorious experience! I went to Earls (@EarlsVicEast) a lot this week. Just as we’re leaving to lunch on Friday, a client asks, “Earls south or east?” Immediately I respond, “East” they’re on Twitter AND a lot of the people who work there are on Twitter. If I have a bad meal or more importantly if I have a great meal, I can let the restaurant, sometimes the server and even the general manager know about how amazing my experience was. Earls, nice work.
7. Someone has to be there to answer the new telephone (from The Now Revolution)
In Jay Baer and Amber Naslund’s book, The Now Revolution, it talks about answering the new telephone, being there online to answer questions and respond to people when they’re talking about your company. Now you, as the owner, aren’t always going to be monitoring Twitter (at least I hope you aren’t), when you’re not there, who is going to respond?
Empowering your employees to not waste time on Twitter, but use it as an effective marketing tactic in your overall strategy is a very smart endeavor.
Tim Horton’s Tweeted Brin (@Rockstarhomes) immediately after he’d said something nice about the service he received. Someone was listening at Tim Horton’s and had the authority to thank him on Twitter. The fact that the response came immediately after it happened was a major factor, which tells me that Tim Horton’s is very forward thinking in having someone answer their new telephone.
It doesn’t take much to listen and respond, but it starts with empowered employees. Maybe they need training? I can help with that. 😉 Maybe you need training? You can only begin to improve if you believe you have a problem. That’s the hardest, admitting you may be wrong.
This post was inspired by a conversation I had with Kaila MacDonald (@heykaila).
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