Learn From Rogue Tweeters:
7 Steps to Promoting Your Organization in Twitter
August 19, 2009
Many organizations are struggling with social media, trying to determine exactly how to use it in a formalized way. But while they strategize about how to push messages or disseminate information, they're being preempted by rogue individuals who, in the true spirit of social media, stake a claim and represent their organization with nothing more than permission.
Who wouldn't want to reach the 44.5 million people who visited Twitter in June (according to comScore and as reported by TechCrunch)? The micro-blogging machine was the fourth most visited site after Facebook, MySpace, and YouTube for the week ending June 27, according to Hitwise.
The U.S. National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, or NIOSH, part of the CDC, is a prime example, using Twitter to promote safety messages. The organization is represented by two separate Twitter accounts: NIOSH safe & healthy and NIOSH Mining (OMSHR), the former with a whopping 562 tweets, or announcements, and 1,517 followers as of August 18, 2009.
Mark Senk, the "man behind the curtain," is an IT professional at NIOSH. He told his supervisor he wanted to try it and received permission. Mark's first tweets were in February 2009, not long after the Obama administration popularized the government's use of Twitter, and about the same time as the heavily-tweeted and retweeted (or message forwarding) peanut butter recall updates from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
A presence on Twitter seems to make sense for organizations like the FDA and NIOSH that are trying to disseminate information to the public at large.
Mark says he decides what to put on Twitter based on what's new on NIOSH's Web site and newsletters, what other government agencies are messaging about safety, and other things that pop up on a Google alert set for NIOSH. As he puts it, there is "always something interesting" and he tries to strike a balance in his topics, knowing that, for example, too much about mining safety will not appeal to firefighters. Multiple times each day is a good amount to tweet, he finds, something on the order of two to thirteen updates.
Three a.m. Saturday morning is not an uncommon time to see a new tweet from Mark. He puts in a couple of hours every day, starting first thing in the morning, picking up again at lunch, and then later at home.
Mark experiments with how to reach new groups by "laying bait," that is, tweeting a NIOSH link that's particularly relevant to another organization, to see if anyone retweets it. He did this recently with a conference in Italy on the impact of long work hours.
Some audiences require special consideration; for instance, in trying to get messages to firefighters he found that certain times of day were more successful given their shifts. Mark tries to develop reciprocal retweeting arrangements with organizations such as The International Fire Chiefs Association to promote safety campaigns and events.
Mark plans to continue tweeting until someone tells him "that's not your job." While no one has questioned that he is promoting safety—NIOSH's goal—Mark is concerned that NIOSH will develop policies that will constrain him, for instance, an approval process, which could delay his messages for days. He believes the current informal process works because he is conscientious and diligent.
More formal processes have already been put in place by some, including the British government, which recently produced 20 pages of guidelines, demonstrating how seriously Twitter is being taken. And businesses routinely develop Web strategies to define processes, roles, and measurements. Is NIOSH's lack of Twitter strategy or guidelines indicative of its level of commitment to Twitter, or merely that it's lucky enough to be able to rely on an individual who essentially evolved his own successfully?
Whether the process is informal or formal, organizations are all trying to get the attention of 44.5 million people. You can, too.
1. Try Twitter to learn about it. Follow Mark's lead at NIOSH and try Twitter for yourself. Forrester Research CEO George Colony agrees: "You can't understand Twitter, Facebook, or blogging by reading an article in a magazine [even here]… you won't be able to truly understand how they could change your business unless you actually use them."
2. Become a bit of a rogue. Forget policies and guidelines and instead bring to your own Twitter use the initiative and conscientiousness that Mark brings to his.
3. Commit the time required to tweet regularly. David Armano blogged for Harvard Business Review that the "economics of using social media in business requires the participation of people to fuel it. It is not simply enabled by technology that maintains itself." Mark's production and sustained use is undoubtedly greater if his Twitter time is considered part of his job.
4. Tweet about information that is relevant and timely to attract and retain followers. Good tweets come from multiple sources and it takes diligence to locate them. Setting Google Alerts can help. Have a topic mix that appeals to your current and desired constituency; topical articles are much more likely to be retweeted than what you ate for lunch!
5. Pace your tweets. Tweet too often, and you'll lose followers. Tweet too infrequently and risk being overlooked. Mark's experience is that multiple times each day works. Also be sensitive to when your potential and existing followers are online.
6. Use other channels to get more followers. Promote your Twitter participation widely.
7. Consider how Twitter fits into your overall social media strategy. Exploit Twitter's unique capabilities; Mark could follow the lesson of many businesses that monitor customer reactions on Twitter to identify safety topics that NIOSH doesn't currently address. Finally, Twitter, like other social media, is constantly evolving, so adapt with it.
About the Author
Lisa Gualtieri, PhD, is editor-in-chief of eLearn Magazine. Follow her on Twitter and she may follow you back.
