All About The Details

Source: Jordan Johnson

Since I am responsible for managing my employer’s social media presence, a recent article sparked my interest. ‘5 brands making the most of PR-specific Twitter accounts’ highlighted five companies doing a great job at managing a public relations-specific Twitter account including Delta, Johnson & Johnson, Starbucks, UPS and Wal-mart.

Going into the article, I wanted to see how these companies made use of a PR-specific Twitter account and what their successful methods were. The company I work for, IDX LLC is a small local Eugene, Ore. company. The companies featured in this article are some of the largest in our country. Even though our scopes aren’t quite the same, I thought that the article highlighted a few valuable methods:

Delta was using their account as a place to share news. News regarding Delta, industry related information and engaging reporters by regularly retweeting their tweets.

Johnson & Johnson identified who was running their account right from their bio section. This is a great way to humanize the profile and allow followers to feel connected to the company.

Starbucks placed contact information for news related issues right in their bio section. This gives journalists and others an easy way to contact the right team. They also included a variety of pictures in most of their tweets. By doing this, they increase the level of interest for their posts. People love visuals.

UPS did a great job at including a variety of posts and engaging other Twitter followers in the process.

Wal-mart included all their Twitter handles right in their bio section. This gives their followers a quick way to follow their other profiles in a fast and easy way.  

All of these accounts had one thing in common: You didn’t get the sense that they were running a PR campaign on their followers. Social media users don’t want to feel like companies are trying to pull one over on them. Instead they used this platform as a place for people interested in their company to receive valuable news. It felt like more of a resource. The goal of any company is to make their audiences feel like they are a valuable resource.