Employees on Twitter?

Are your employees on Twitter?  I mean, are your employees on Twitter as your employees, tweeting about the job, the conditions, the customer service, the problems, etc?  Can your business take a risk like that?

The fact is, customers and potential customers tend to trust a business with a shared online presence.   Unless your business has a lot to hide and has a lot of disgruntled employees, you will find that it is well worth the risk to have your employees on Twitter.

It is also a good thing to occasionally  have an employee tweet about a customer service problem, and then tweet about how the problem was fixed.  A business that puts nothing but positive things about itself online is suspect; nothing is perfect and everybody knows that.  What is this business NOT telling us?  But because of this very thing, the fact that your business admits to an occasional problem but also shares how any problem was taken care of, is actually good for your business.  In fact, it makes your business seem more honest, and full of actual humans, than a business that shares only the good stuff. One of the most frequent customer complaints is the slowness of problem-solving; on Twitter, people will see the swiftness of YOUR company’s problem-solving.

So let your employees tweet as employees of your business.  They’re probably already on there as themselves, saying much the same things they’ll say for you.  On your company website, list your employees who are on Twitter and encourage people to follow them.  If you’re the boss, get a Twitter account and do some tweeting yourself.  People respect a boss who isn’t afraid to talk to them outside of the building.  Let people ask questions and answer them.

Twitter can be your business’ best friend.  Be sure you and your people are using it to your advantage.