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[Have a social publishing question? Email Brandon[at]brandonmendelson[dot]com and I will reply here on the blog. Note: It takes me a while to get through my email because I answer all of them personally.]
I am new to twitter, and really even to facebook. I did follow your tip about updating my personal twitter profile. But what I actually wonder about is that i work in a fairly small town in Colorado doing bookkeeping for a body shop. There doesn’t seem to be other shops on twitter so thought maybe this is a great time to break in and show them all how it can be done. Our shop is so slow right now it is truly terrifying and sounds like that is how it is all over town. So I am curious if blogging, being on twitter and other places could help us. our website is Taberinc.com I just dont really know how to twittwr yet. i have a personal page set up because I have some plans, but now I would like to set one up for my boss. (which I will probably be in charge of) so could you offer some input???!!!!
I follow you on twiiter, but from some of your posts i gather you didnt even consider following me because I didn’t really have stuff filled out or a picture…….but i have changed that if you are interested in looking and giving more tips. It is under Kalehiwa or Kim McKee.
Thank you,
Kim
Thank you for writing Kim. I want to point out that I do follow everyone on Twitter that I can (at some point, I hope to be following everyone following me). I also follow folks who don’t have their profile (bio, picture, url) filled out. But, I do warn against trusting information that comes from those profiles because of spam, bots, and other folks looking to make a quick buck.
So remember friends, fill out your Twitter profile as soon as you can.
How Your Boss Should Use Twitter
The best example of a boss that uses Twitter is @Zappos (Tony Hsieh). He gives you his opinion, he’s transparent about what goes on in his business, and he replies to the people following him. If your boss is comfortable doing these three things (sharing his thoughts, being transparent, and communicating with customers) and he does this on his own, he should be on Twitter.
But, if you’re going to run the profile for your boss, it’s not the best thing to do. I’d recommend just focusing on the body shop’s Twitter presence instead. Social publishing is all about authenticity. If you’re publishing and you’re not who you say you are, you lose.
If My Body Shop Used Twitter
This is how I would use it:
1. Get the head repair technican on Twitter (using the same three guidlines that your boss will be using.) Let him report to customers via Twitter on the status of their car, their current schedule (if they are having delays), remind customers when they should come in for an oil change, and report on news concerning their vehicle (recalls, ect.)
2. Get customer service on Twitter (again, using the three guidelines). Let them answer questions about the models you have on sale, announce deals and contests, and be a resource for your current customers to communicate with on the go. Like say, if a customer’s 2002 Chevy Impala’s transmission dies in New Mexico, and they’re far from the shop. What can you do to help them? Can you point them to the nearest dealership? Can you (or the technician) tweet suggestions to keep the car going until it can get help?
Nobody is doing this. Why don’t you?
3. Give the shop it’s own Twitter profile. Announce when it opens, when it closes, what car is currently being serviced, maybe a neat fact or two about the car, you can go nuts with this. The point is to be creative and be useful.
You Don’t Need To Be Everywhere
You should have a blog. No question. Get hosting, get Wordpress, get Thesis, and buy a guide on how to get your blog going. That’s why I advertise the three items over to the right (Dreamhost, Thesis, 31 Days To Build A Better Blog). These items are everything you need to get started as a social publisher and do it better than most.
But you don’t need Twitter AND Facebook. You don’t need Facebook and Twitter. Pick one, integrate it with your blog, and focus on managing and maintaining those two. There is no point in spreading out and spreading your resources. There is also no point in providing duplicate content in different places just because you can.
Twitter is more useful than Facebook in your case because Facebook sucks on a cell phone (unless you have an iPhone App, and even then it’s not great.) There can be a lot of value in providing information to your customers on the go over their phone, particularly if they are in need of your assistance. Twitter allows you to be there and communicate with them easily.
So remember: If an employee is going to be on Twitter to represent your business, it needs to be them doing it, they need to be transparent, and they need to reply to their customers / followers. Be creative , and be where your customers are. For a body shop or any car-related company, you must be mobile, so focus on the best mobile social publishing platform (Twitter.)
