Tweet with me, not at me!

Some Columbia businesses understand Twitter and some simply don’t get it. Success on Twitter is not deemed by followers. Large names can amass thousands of followers instantly because of brand recognition, this doesn’t mean it has any effect on marketing. It can actually have a negative effect as followers can begin to feel ignored and unimportant. Here is my list of businesses that either get Twitter or don’t get it based on level of engagement.

GET it:

• The Butterfly Tattoo is a great example of a business that understands Twitter. Not only does the business engage with followers, they provide value that is unrelated to this business. Everything from perspectives on downtown renovations, excitement over margaritas, and general conversation can be found here. They rarely, if at all, tweet straight promotions. I wasn’t familiar with the Butterfly Tattoo and I probably wouldn’t be if they simply tweeted at me.
• Top Ten Wines is a must follow for any wine or beer lover. If you don’t know anything about wine you are sure to learn something from these guys. You can ask them questions, learn about upcoming tastings, make recommendations, get pairing suggestions, and find great blogs and wine resources right from their stream!
• Patric Chocolate is the perfect accompaniment to the previous Tweeter. This local gourmet chocolate maker is almost nothing but engagement.  If you have any questions about chocolate this is the guy to ask. Not only does he make chocolate from beans, he will recommend other chocolates that you might enjoy.
• Shakespeare’s we all love you. Your tasty triangles and tweets are the perfect combo. It’s Shakespeare’s, of course they will do alternative marketing correctly!

There are several other successful businesses Tweeters, these are just the ones that stood out to me. If you have other suggestions please share them.

DON’T get it:

• Columbia Business Times unfortunately doesn’t get it. They currently follow 1 person which indicates the level of engagement.
• Landmark Bank does’t even know they’re tweeting. That’s probably not true but it’s what I’d claim if I was them. If you are interested in a sporadic worthless stream to follow on Twitter I highly recommend this one.
• The Blue Note provides no reason to follow except to get concert updates. That’s cool, if you are an avid concert goer in which case you would probably know about the concert without Twitter. I like concerts but I attend maybe 1 per year. If Blue Note responded to suggestions, comments, feedback, RT pics from shows, RT artists that mention Columbia or Blue Note I would have a reason, but alas there is none. I’m gonna add Ragtag Cinema to this as well, they are guilty of the same thing.
• McCosh Cevrolet why anyone would follow this I don’t know. It’s like a constant car commercial combined with radio promotions. Yeah, it’s that bad.
• Hot Box Cookies is like the little Tweeter that could, but just can’t. Just when you think the pulse is gone they start back up, only to fall off the face of the stream after a short burst. I can guess what might be getting in the way of motivation here…
• Flat Branch Pub is a total yard sale all over the place. With an average of 1 Tweet per month I think these guys must be hanging out with the Hot Box guys a little too much. They don’t even have a link to their website in their profile. #Epicfail

This list is obviously not complete. You might even disagree with some of these. If you have someone to add to either list or want to argue someone off the list have at it!

Update: Within a few short hours of this post I was contacted by Landmark, Flat Branch, and Business Times. All three took the criticism well and plan to step up their Twitter game in 2010. Consider following them to track their progress.

Tags: businesses, followers, get it, Twitter
Categories: Advertising, Business, Business Development, Marketing, Social Networking, Tech.

Posted on Wednesday, January 13th, 2010 at 5:33 pm
Discussion: Follow: RSS 2.0 feed. Discussion is closed.