People Follow People

Here’s a quick tip – be human. One thing I’ve learned from Twitter is that people follow people and they “unfollow” spam. In fact, spam is detested in the twittersphere about as badly as it is in the email world. When advising companies about the use of Twitter, I always recommend letting one of the heads of the company tweet personally rather than just giving “company news.” This allows you to offer something back to the community rather than just be a taker.

This is a pretty important lesson social media has to teach medium and large companies – be a face, be a voice, and talk back. What do Chris Brogan, Guy Kawasaki, and Darren Rowse all have in common? They all love twitter and converse with their “followers.” This is also true of Karl Rove and Arnold Schwarzenegger. It’s even a tiny part of why Barack Obama won the hearts of the tech generation.

This post isn’t really all about Twitter (that post is coming next week). Instead, it’s a message about business, ministry, marketing, and people. People follow people. They don’t follow “company news,” “latest deals,” or press releases about new products. So how do you become human to your potential “followers” in today’s economy?

• Contribute – don’t be a taker.
• Have a face, not just a logo.
• Have a real name, like Bob, Tom, or Julio, not just “Gargantuan Enterprises, LLC.”
• Admit mistakes, answer criticism (sometimes), and be imperfect.
• Be a friend in the same way you’re a friend to your friends, if you really want new friends.
• Be careful about anything “automated” or “mass.” Think “personal response.”
• Use smileys. :-) and ;-) can make a somewhat argumentative statement more palatable. :-)

And the biggest lesson of all? Love people or get a job at a zoo. Here’s more about me. Want me to know about you and your message? Introduce yourself in the comments below – I promise to personally respond!