Comments on: Hiring a Twit- Awesome or Suckey?

By: Tony Arko

Tony Arko — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 15:16:55 +0000

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.

By: CharityHisle

CharityHisle — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 15:01:40 +0000

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.

By: Robert Ayala

Robert Ayala — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 16:40:20 +0000

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.

By: Jack Leblond

Jack Leblond — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 16:31:41 +0000

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.

By: Lani Rosales

Lani Rosales — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 16:19:53 +0000

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?

By: Jack Leblond

Jack Leblond — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 16:09:23 +0000

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.