Are You Building Friendships or Clientele with your Twitter Account?

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Too often Arts Organizations use Twitter to Market themselves and miss the opportunity to build lasting Friendships of their fans

There are some great orchestra twitter accounts online right now:

What makes these twitter accounts so wonderful?  They are engaging, personal and friendly.  They don't just talk about what's happening in the next week or month, or post links to press releases.  Pretty much every day they engage with their audience, fellow Twitterers creating an online personality that invites. There are numerous other symphonies and orchestras on Twitter.  I follow nearly 100 different organizations, but the five listed above really stand out.

The point of social media is to be "social." The organizations that succeed at this have tweets with personality.  They achieve this by:

  1. Listening (and responding) to tweets about their organization (even the bad ones)
  2. Joking and providing humorous tidbits (and not just about their organization)
  3. Have interests beyond just their organization (talk on multiple topics)
These may sound like obvious qualities which can be applied to anyone on Twitter.  But, if your organization is not listed in my top 5, go back over your tweets. How many are responses to what other's have said not about your organization?  How many of your tweets were re-tweeted by other's with some additional comment that makes you laugh, or it is obvious your tweet made them laugh?  What topics are you discussing not directly related to your organization?  If less than 5% of your tweets are not directly related to your organization and/or humorous then you're not building friendships via Twitter.

Now, you may ask why is building friendships important?  If a friend drives through your city, they'll feel a sense of obligation to say 'hi' (i.e., come see a concert).  But a client feels no obligation whatsoever. A friend is someone who will come to lend a helping hand, or donate money to your cause.  A client feels they have already given you their money for services rendered.  A friend is someone who will fight for you when the going gets tough.  A client will just find another vendor.  

Unless you really want to be replaceable, start building friendship.  Start tweeting with more emphasis on getting to know the people who are talking about you and allow them to get to know you.  

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If you want to know more about tweeting with attitude, drop me a tweet... or better yet, chat up one of the orchestras I've listed above.  Their twitter accounts are linked to make it easy.

Comments

Rita_f_h said…
The Regina Symphony Orchestra "Twitterer" can easily be described as someone who tweets with personality. He/she engages, can be quite witty, and is a wonderful supporter of community.
January 13, 2012 at 7:09 PM
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