Have You Built a Relevant B2B Community on Twitter? Don’t be so Sure.

According to Merriam-Webster’s online dictionary, a community is defined as, “an interacting population of various kinds of individuals (as species) in a common location.”

When I read that description I think it is a fairly accurate description of Marqui’s online community that we’ve built on Twitter, but I’ve seen many examples that don’t quite live up to that definition. The key part of the definition that I think should exemplify everything about an organization’s Twitter following is, “an interacting population.” Is your group of followers on Twitter actually interacting with you? Are you interacting with them? If not, then you’re not living up to what a community can or should be.

Having said that, there are many things you can do to encourage an authentic community to grow up around your company’s online presence. Here are our tips on how to do so:

1. Provide value. Just showing up and tweeting about any-old-garbage to get some tweets up on your profile page on a regular basis isn’t going to encourage interaction (at least not positive interaction). The communities that have the strongest and most relevant interactions are the ones that are built on a company that takes the time to tweet information, resources and thoughts that their followers find valuable, relevant and worth responding to.
2. Take part. One of the biggest benefits that Twitter can have for your organization is that it allows you to have essentially instantaneous two-way conversations with your audience, but, that only works if you’re actively monitoring and checking your Twitter account for updates and comments from your followers. If you’re not interacting with your audience, then you’re not building much of a community are you? 
3. Maintain momentum. One of the biggest mistakes that causes a community to fall apart is when an organization stops tweeting or interacting consistently. It’s crucial that once you create an online presence you maintain it. Make sure that you’re tweeting regularly to keep your audience engaged. 
4. Remember your brand. You’re corporate Twitter account isn’t the same as your personal one, and don’t you ever forget it! Twitter tends to be a more casual form of communication but that doesn’t mean that you don’t have to responsibly represent your brand ideals there. Your audience is following your brand because they want to see a more “personal” side to it, but they still want to interact with someone who is a good indicator of brand values.

Posted by Amberlie Denny at March 7, 2011 8:00 AM

Comments