Some best practices for writing a blog and using twitter are:

• To engage and respond to participants
• decide on a tone, informal or professional
• don’t over-share
• don’t over-comment
• keep it short
• create brand awareness
• be transparent
• respond to both positive and negative feedback
• be proactive versus reactive

 

It’s especially important that the company respond to users because the users need to feel like someone is manning the fort, so to speak.

Users want to feel as if the social media brand is an extension of the attentiveness of the company itself. Without timely and relevant feedback from the social media brand, the user could feel abandoned. Deciding on a tone is extremely important because this voice makes the user feel as if they are in a defined relationship. One that they can easily identify and relate to.

There can be a point of over-sharing information to an extent that the user feels that they need to pull back from the relationship, instead of moving further into a more integrated union.

The company should use every opportunity it can to only create brand awareness but also reinforce what the company’s purpose and mission statement is.  This can be asserting that the focus of the company is to provide the best service or product within its industry.

Transparency creates the feeling that the user knows the company and that feeling lends itself to trust.  By creating a atmosphere of trust and open communication, the company fosters honest feedback in terms of how the user feels about the brand, by extension the services, or products that the company offers.

Honest feedback can be remarkably valuable when considering how much money some companies spend on market research and focus groups.  This is useful to obtain a true measure of a brand/product or service mix and it’s positive or negative characteristics.

Lastly, taking control of the company’s social media practices.  The company should make sure that its statements are easy to understand, poignant and powerful.  This needs to be done in a way that allows the user to quickly absorb information and get the main point of the company’s communication.