I really like Twitter’s blog that talks about best practices for tweeting. Who knows better about how to maximize the results for tweets than the Twitter professionals themselves? While it focuses on the best practices for journalists and news publishers in this following link (http://blog.twitter.com/2012/09/best-practices-for-journalists.html), I think it can really apply to any business and gives great advice. My favorite tips are to live-tweet regularly and also to use hashtags for context and @ to cite sources. For new Twitter users, these two recommendations are vital for success.
For those brand new to tweeting, the book we are reading in my social media marketing class – “The Tao of Twitter” is also a very good resource as it really explains how to gain followers, reach the audience you are looking for, and brand your business online. You can get an excerpt from the book, buy the kindle version, or buy the paperback here: http://www.thetaooftwitter.com/book-excerpt/
The more you tweet and blog, you will realize that the two really do go hand-in-hand. Although tweets are quick and the characters allotted are only 140, and blogs can be endlessly long, they both serve the strategic business purpose of reaching out to the consumer.
Blog best practices that I find to be the most crucial are knowing your audience, picking an effective and conversational writer, and most importantly, understanding that blogging can help your company with SEO, which will help your portential future customers find you first, not your competitors.
For a more detailed list and to view a live webinar, go to PR Newswire and check out this corporate blogging article: http://blog.prnewswire.com/2012/10/03/corporate-blogging-best-practices/
This webinar brings me to my next thought, which was the blog I read and follow the most because it pertains directly to the industry and company that most immpacts my life – Comcast. Our company blog, which is named “Comcast Voices” and can be found at this link: http://corporate.comcast.com/comcast-voices
It’s a corporate account, made for discussions with all different levels of Comcast employees, customers, and other consumers. According to Comcast Voices, “Everyone from product managers and programmers to business unit leaders and technical specialists will discuss news, change at our company, and our thoughts on what’s important in our industry. We look forward to our conversations, and welcome your feedback.”
This blog has been very maintained and kept up to date, and a lot of good information about the company can be found here. Especially due to the merger between Comcast and NBC Universal, it is great for people to be able to view and contribute to this blog and get the answers to questions they have from the most informed and influential people in the industry.
I think that Comcast could spice it up a little, and I’d love to see more pictures, more consistent updates, and information about industry trends, programming, and fun facts. Things that would keep it more interesting and entertaining and keep me coming back more often than I do. I’m not sure if I wasn’t an employee if I would look at the site at all, so that needs to be worked on – as now it seems to target employees and the press.
What do you do for Comcast? I bet they’d listen to your suggestions to spice up the blog/twitter account