Thursday, August 26, 2010
Twitter Question
We’ve just started--really just started--a social media push at work and I’m still ironing out the kinks. For Twitter I decided to follow a number of industry publications and some of the larger businesses but am purposely ignoring competitors (other manufacturers). One of our competitors is now following us. When I say competitor, I mean direct competitor in one of our biggest product families.
They have manufacturing in the city as us, they make the same kinds of equipment as us, they sell in the same markets to the same people, and they have much the same goals as us. We are a young company and we’re looking up at a lot of higher cost, more established competition--these guys, on the other hand, have us in their sites.
What should I do? Ignore them? Block them? Unless someone can offer a compelling argument as to why I should do so, I can’t imagine following them.
Thoughts?
Comments & Trackbacks
If you block them, they’ll just snicker, tell everyone, and then follow you from a fake account. Just relax.
Install <a href=http://gizmodo.com/5259381/twitter-toilet-tweets-your-poo">this</a>, and they’ll get tired of following you. When they’re gone, resume normal tweeting. Or twitting, or whatever it is.
Must remember to use preview.
First, you’re broadcasting information to the world, but you don’t want your competitors to hear it? That makes me think of college students who post questionable photos on Facebook and express shock when those pictures get seen by their parents.
Would I subscribe to their Twitter feeds? Sure, for the same reason that I’d read their press releases, their ads, and industry articles about them. It’s information that might turn out to be valuable.
Now, if you want to twit them, you could publicly congratulate them for finally subscribing to your feed. How snarky you want to make the wording is up to you, of course. (You should expect the same if you do subscribe to their feed, of course.)
follow them back. its courteous and makes you look like you’re big enough to not be worried about them. I’d even maakee a public comment welcoming them to the world of Twitter.
I agree with DougS. I don’t actually do Facebook, Twitter, or anything like them, though, and I’m actually a bit bothered that many of the businesses I have dealings with expect me to friend or follow them in order to get the full benefit of a relationship with them.
Doug’s right - your comment welcoming your competition also has the potential to be snarky: when I got my first cellphone, the girl behind the counter asked who I was coming from. When I told her that it was my first cellphone, she responded, “Wow, there aren’t many like you anymore! Welcome to the twentieth century!” I’m not certain that she meant to be snarky; I think she just found it inconceivable that I wouldn’t have had a cellphone before.
Take it as a sign of success that they are following you. Follow them back, but remember, don’t tweet anything you wouldn’t want out in the public anyway. Are they going to get any secret information from your twitter account? If so, that’s a you problem, not a them problem. Heck, you should definitely follow them back. Catch their mistakes instead.
At least that’s what I’d tell one of my clients.