We’re still pretty new to social media outreach efforts here at the NASE. We talked about it for months (a year, maybe?) before making our official plunge with a Facebook fan page, LinkedIn Group, and Twitter profile.
One of the scariest things about diving into social media is that it’s out there – immediately, accessible by anyone, and you can’t take it back. If you make a mistake, or change your mind, or promote an event or benefit or article and something changes, well, you can’t recall tweets.
But by the same token, social media is adaptable. You can change your direction and strategy and try new things.
For example, we started with a Facebook Group. But Group features on Facebook weren’t flexible enough for us – we had a hard time sharing information, and people couldn’t comment on a particular posting by us, they would have to start a new thread on the wall.
So we changed it instead to a Facebook Fan Page. (Become our fan!)
As our Twitter strategy, we decided on @NASEtweets. Several of us tweet from that account and monitor it. We send out news about the association, and RT interesting small-business articles and research.
We also promote our staff’s accounts:
- @maureenpetron
- @mollyknelson
- @koberlander
- @karslan
- @coyotekeith
From our personal accounts, we give a bit of color commentary behind the association (like when I tweeted during my trip out to LA to award the NASE Future Entrepreneur Scholarship), and also some personal stuff (Kristin often updates on crazies on the Metro to and from work!).
This post from the Brand Builder blog has me rethinking that strategy. We liked the idea of having personal accounts that we promoted to members to follow because we wanted you to get to know the people behind the NASE. I think we have a great staff, and they are devoted to making a better association. We wanted you to know that.
Brand Builder lays out a plan for a corporate account (like our @NASEtweets) but then to have staff accounts still be tied to and “owned” by the association. More generic names that tie back to our job function, but that we personalize with our picture and name. Only work-related stuff (although still color commentary) would come out of these accounts.
(Brand Builder's handy chart to follow the corporate Twitter account and the team accounts.)
As Twitter (and the association’s social media strategy) evolves, it’s a lot for a group like ours to think about it. But it also applies to your micro-business. Even if you are just a one-or two-person shop, and you monitor all the Twitter accounts, is it good for your micro-business to have multiple accounts? You could do promotions from one, handle complaints from another, and monitor your industry from a third.
Tell us what you think. Do you have a Twitter account? Multiple accounts? Do you follow multiple accounts within one company?
Hat tip: Brand Builder