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Hiring a Twit- Awesome or Suckey?

11 February 2009 | social-media | 6 Comments

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Auto Responders

Microblogging site Twitter is the most rapidly growing social network in the world and hundreds of services are now offered to supplement your Twitter experience from applications that put Twitter on your phone and website, automate responses or help you find a restaurant. Many say that the social network is being dumbed down and abused by people to have timed or auto responses while others say its smart business and its up to the user culture to determine such.

On top of auto responses, Twit4Hire.com has launched which is a service businesses or individuals can pay for and have someone Twitter for them. From their site:

“At twit4hire.com our business is to frequently microblog for clients who are already too busy to add yet another daily task to their burgeoning agendas, but who still want to proactively reach out to their customer base. Through our flexible microblogging service we inform our clients’ customers & partners of news, services, products, and offers on a daily, or even an hourly basis, while our clients remain free to focus on more urgent tasks and priorities.“

Big Whoop?

There is uproar in the community with people indicating that having someone unaffiliated with your business Twitter for you. Some call it lazy, others unauthentic, but what if it works for your business? Is it any different than outsourcing your company’s customer service call center, public relations, outbound marketing or sales staff? From a simple Twitter search, it seems that the culture of Twitter has mixed feelings, but the most vocal users don’t support outsourcing your branded voice:

“I am strongly averse to this: http://www.twit4hire.com/ Fu**ing 1.0 companies completely missing the point.” -@mikevillar

“Mixed thoughts on Twit4hire. http://www.twit4hire.com/ Anyone else?” -@abarcelos

“@VictorEGalvan R/T Ghost-twits, ghost-tweeters…like ghost-bloggers. Knew it had to happen sometime…http://www.twit4hire.com/” -@zanesafrit

“New Twitter service www.twit4hire.com. I suggest companies not to take the easy way out. Be authentic and tweet for yourself.” -@TiffanyPR

“@TMarieHilton I don’t like how twit4hire.com implies that I’m a twit for talking to Adobe peeps here + none of their personas are women!” -@acrogirl

“Busy day – haven’t had a moment to twitter. Think I may need to speak to http://www.twit4hire.com/” -@andrewbloch

“RT @HomeBiss: Twitterers for hire? We have many here! http://www.twit4hire.com/ #twip #twitter #business … I love the name twit4hire :-) ” -@stevenhealey

So there are mixed feelings about the service from users, so weigh your options before shelling out money for a stranger to implement your marketing for you- it may be more cost effective and in line with the online culture to have someone in house be your face person rather than hire someone to twit AS you. Our advice is to research and test the waters before jumping in any pool and by temperature testing, you’ll know if it’s too hot or cold to jump in.

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6 Comments for this entry

  • Jack Leblond
    February 11th, 2009 on 9:09 am

    This is certainly not a very “social” approach, but business have been hiring content providers and ghost writers for years – why should Twitter be any different? Don’t want to read something that you feel is not authentic – then don’t follow them, problem solved.

  • Lani Rosales
    February 11th, 2009 on 9:19 am

    Jack, would you support the argument that blog content and news services being written via ghostwriter is far less conversational and personal than a direct message enabled service like Twitter? What do you think of the blog culture versus the Twitter culture? Or would you suggest companies give it a shot and be willing to take a risk that some presence is better than no presence?

  • Jack Leblond
    February 11th, 2009 on 9:31 am

    I agree, hiring it out is far less conversational, to use the lingo; less engaging. I feel that with the blogs and with Twitter companies that hire it out are not (or should not be) expecting to “engage” people, merely attract eyes for a quick sale. There have always been 2 kinds of consumer; loyal users and cheapest price buyers.

    Companies that understand and embrace social media appeal to loyal customers, and often still get the people who just want low price. An added bonus, loyal customers will often talk about their experiences.

    Companies that are doing social media because it’s the latest buzz-word their CEO heard at a conference, they undoubtedly will only attract the deal hunters and will have to work twice as hard for each sale.

  • Robert Ayala
    February 11th, 2009 on 9:40 am

    While less than “social” I can see how a a company on a limited budget may opt to hire a “twit” to micro-blog within given paramters. Then the company’s focus could be on monitoring the customer conversations (listening). As Jack points out, this is already being done with ghost bloggers, so why not ghost micro-bloggers? Besides, I suspect that many of the most prolific personlities on Twitter may already be incorporating this tactic, at least to a certain extent.

  • CharityHisle
    February 20th, 2009 on 8:01 am

    Hire to Twitter??? If I find out someone is hired to Twitter on behalf of someone else (ghost write), not only will I disconnect immediately but I will make sure many others do as well.I’m not the only person that will feel deceived.

    It defeats the purpose, and isn’t really “connecting” with anyone. Besides, how do you KNOW who you’re talking to?

    Limited budget or otherwise, ghost writing is not acceptable. If a person represents a company, that’s one thing, but claiming to be someone else is another. The only way Twittering on behalf of another is acceptable is when the person Tweeting is completely honest about who they are.

  • Tony Arko
    February 20th, 2009 on 8:16 am

    Just like the US companies that outsourced customer service to India and found it turned a lot of customers off and they lost market share, the same will occur if they outsource social media. Their customers will become wise to the fact that they don’t care enough to spend the time and energy to engage the customer. Some things should not be outsourced and direct contract with your customers and potential customers is one of those things.

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