Today I came across an article on CNN.com – the inspiration for this post. It was about President Obama’s “first tweet”. It happened to come from the @redcross twitter account in regards to the Haiti earthquake, but it wasn’t really a tweet written by Barack. In fact, all he did was hit the update button.
Does this mean he really tweeted that particular post? You know what, who cares? Because the big issue here is that the President has claimed to be a tweeter since the start of the Presidential campaign almost two years ago. His @BarrackObama account is verified as the 44th President of the United States. So, the fact that he admitted to never using Twitter is a bit discouraging…for me anyway. My current tweet reads as follows and includes the full article on CNN.com:
“@cariew – Hmmm. False representation? Who is @BarrackObama anyway? Obama’s first ‘tweet’ makes presidential history (via @CNN) http://ow.ly/YjVC”
My point is not to bash the President. It’s mostly meant to bring up an interesting dilemma that faces many of the “busy” people in the world…those who can actually benefit from having a Twitter account. How are they supposed to stay on top of social media? Do they have hours and hours to dedicate to Twitter and Facebook like I do? Nope. BUT (and that’s a really big but), they shouldn’t claim to be doing it if they aren’t. If they’ve got help, fine. If they’ve hired a team dedicated to following them around and tweeting for them, great. Just be honest!
As a digital agency, we run into this issue a lot. Jumping into the world of social marketing doesn’t mean just opening a page and letting it sit for months on end. It means dedicating some real time to making it worthwhile for your brand and your business, and most importantly, for your fans and followers. And, not everyone has the time to do that. We’ve tweeted for many of our clients, but what we’ve found is that there must be some level of transparency, or your followers could very well feel deceived when they find out your a fake.
Let’s take for example Ms. Kim Kardashian. She is currently being paid to tweet about her love of eating at Carl’s Jr. Does Kim really love Carl’s Jr.? Probably not. But when you go to her Twitter page: http://twitter.com/KimKardashian, you see that her background is now a Carl’s Jr. ad. Kim isn’t hiding the fact that she’s being paid to promote salads and burgers. And, just like any other paid promotional endorsement, it’s accepted and we all know the reason behind it. She’s gorgeous and people like to eat things that gorgeous people eat, obviously. Kim’s contract will end, her Twitter profile will go back to normal (a photo of her butt) and Carl’s Jr. will start a new campaign. And we’re all okay with that.
What I’m trying to convey is the idea of being honest and as transparent as possible in this new world of social media. There’s nothing wrong with tweeting for someone if you don’t claim to be them when the question is asked. I’m not gonna lie, I was a little disappointed when I found out it wasn’t the real Taylor Swift following me on Twitter. It’s not always easy to determine right and wrong within these new communication channels, but there’s always something to be said for being truthful.
Just be honest. That’s all I ask.
