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Twitter Identity for Companies

Now it is time for me to explain why I don’t believe that “^XX” signature is a good tactic for social media marketing on Twitter.
Egypt Social Media | 13.03.2012
Lately I had interesting conversation with @VodafoneEgypt and @ahussam about the “^XX” signature on the tweets. @Ford as well has been waiting for my reply regarding this topic.

Hussam mentions some accounts that uses the personal signature like: @VodafoneEgypt @dell @Ford @McDonalds@HomeDepot @CocaCola @Pepsi

Now it is time for me to explain why I don’t believe that “^XX” signature is a good tactic for social media marketing on Twitter.
Twitter is not a customer service platform only. Twitter is about engagement and building relations between the company brand and the tweep.

Twitter users need a solid relation between them and the “Brand”. How you can provide that while you represent always a person to the front line with his signature at the bottom of the tweet?

If I have a question to the brand in morning and another one at night, I believe that each time I see a different signature I would feel it is related to person not the brand itself.

Sometimes I see it moving to a personal level of conversation. I witness a lot of personal problems between the @VodafoneEgypt moderators and the tweeps and they don’t really want to engage with the moderator tweets anymore. The reason for that, once they didn’t like his reply or maybe they don’t like his tone. Anyway the problem turned from relation with the brand to relation with a person. Now tell me is that good thing for the brand while you are socializing your brand? Is replacing the person would help me as a tweep when I see different signature?.

Personal level doesn’t mean it is Social. Being social is about being supportive, witty, speedy and much more. It is not about being a human only who sticks his signature at the end.

We all know for sure that companies accounts on twitter managed by human. It might be one or two or a big team so why the company needs to announce this moderator everytime they reply or tweet? That’s the question.

Boring to see always the signature coming at the end of each tweet. I already knew that you is you.

We have seen in the court a lot of legal problems between social media moderators and companies because some companies believes that even your personal account belong to them. You got a famous because you have been a part of the company social media campaigns. Now how can we separate this unless from the beginning we have very good strategy and guidelines which explains what kind of personal exposure you may get from the company social media initiatives.

All social media consultants keep saying that you ruin your social media accounts if it is managed by the traditional marketers or customer service people. You have to build your brand socially. It is all about mentality and not just marketing or customer support.
If your moderators announce themselves into the company tweets so what is the social relation I build here with the brand itself? I need a relation with the company logo I see on your avatar not with the “^X” “^Y” “^Z”. That’s the main focus after all.

Question to you: Which is more famous as brand “CocaCola” and “Pepsi” or “Starbucks”?

Another question: Who spend more money on advertising and marketing “CocaCola” or “Starbucks”?

One last question: “Dell” is unknown brand?

My reply is:
- CocaCola followers on Twitter: 241,430 followers
- Pepsi: 61,000 followers (!!!!!)
- Dell: 5,000 followers (!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)
- While Starbucks: 1,373,000 followers.

I think know you now who were really able to provide a good social account by using good social media strategies.

You might come with a note to me saying: why you compare? I would ask you why not? We all on twitter and we all looking for better marketing and brand awareness.

Social media is all about how to engage socially. Because if you don’t fit fast and creatively you will be left behind.

Social media doesn’t need a one year old guideline because it is a whole world changing around the hour.

Social media experts doesn’t exist as you can find in any role because we just follow what is going on and try to fit. It is only tools that keep changing. So please forget about the dummies books and those old fashion “marketing style” rules and hit the social networks stream effectively.

Now lose the tie and wear a cool tshirt…. Oh I mean lose the signature and shift your brand into a social cool persona!
About the author: Egypt Social Media

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