A Face to Twitter For . . . . . .
The last two follows I’ve received on Twitter, are both businesses. They use logos in their profiles, and have profile links to their company website. They are New Hampshire-based companies, which is cool because I live near the Granite State, and some of my social networking and consulting activities take place there.
Both companies offer services related to what I do. They are either monitoring my feed as competition, or they value, in some way, the thoughts I express through the various channels.
What bugs me though, is that there are no personal faces on these two Twitter profiles. No faces, and no names. This is a bit shocking to me. If someone is passionate enough about their business, brand, or work, to make the effort to build a Twitter following, why wouldn’t they want their name and face associated with the business?
To me, the strength of the Twitter meme is the personal connection; I don’t care if I’m one of 5000 followers, when I read your tweet, I feel like you are talking to me. And because I can see your smiling face when I read your inspirational message, I feel a connection.
The blogosphere is filled with advice on how companies can adapt and use Twitter as a customer listening medium, marketing tool, or conversational channel. Millions of pixels also shout out the branding advantages that Twitter offers. Most opinions I’ve read say that a company should send tweets under the company handle, but place a picture and name of a live person in the profile, or vice-versa. This seems like an excellent practice.
The two companies referred to here are Micro Arts, and Boost Training. I mention their names with the hope they are monitoring their names using Google alerts, and will find this blog post.
I’m not mad or upset at them for not associating a live personality with their profiles, but as I move forward advising individuals and small business on social media trends and practices, I’d like to know their reasoning, if any, for not doing so.
So what do you think? Should a company associate a face with their Twitter profile? Have you ever advised against this practice? Lets hear about it in the comments.
