Know-How Exchange : Social Media

It depends on what you're trying to communicate on your corporate home page.

If you want to appear very official and professional, the latest tweet probably won't help you a lot. If you want to appear warm, human, friendly, laid-back, then the latest tweet might be OK.

Decide what the objective is for your homepage and then make your decisions based on that. Who is visiting your homepage? How did they find it? What do you want them to do? What image do you want to convey?

This is a question that evolves around the corporate culture of your org. Are you edgey and hip? Then I'd say yes-- oh yes.

There are several factors that could influence your decision to put a twitterfeed widget on your homepage. Crispin Porter + Bogusky has one on their website: https://www.cpbgroup.com/#cpb And when they laid off people, those tweets were on their homepage too. So yes, you have to think first about what you your twitterfeed will be streaming...will it just be your @TwitterName? Also you have to consider visual layout on your site. I thought about putting a twitter widget on the homepage of www.oshyn.com but there's no way to do it without redesigning the front page - and that's not an effective use of money right now. You also have to consider what your CTAs are on your homepage...is it going to be a distraction from your CTAs? I'd consider putting it on interior pages like we have begun doing: https://www.oshyn.com/solutions/social-media.html

Hope that helps...

Your other option is to put your "Favorites" on your home page, or wherever you'd like them to go. On a daily basis, Favorite those Tweets that are interesting, show your expertise, are complimentary, or show your company in the light your brand promises will be shown, then get the URL off of your Twitter home page for your Favorites, then use this in your Twitter feed.

You can just put the tweets you make on the site and control what is said. Why wouldn't you if you are very active with Twitter for your business. It keeps the site active with new information.

It also depends on you business, but most I have seen could benefit from more current information.

The reason you haven't see it on other sites is they haven't thought to do it.

Facebook also allows you to do this.

I hanker for the days when marketing people did things because they wanted to, rather than do them solely as a result of assessing their impact on revenues and profits. Sometimes doing something which is potentially off beat can produce unexpected positive results.

So for what it’s worth, my opinion is that you should stick the feed onto your home page, be prepared to handle the unintended consequences should they arise and go for it.

I would also ensure that any such feedback mechanisms should be complimented by some interest generating activities in your Blog and in your PR activities – perhaps involving YouTube. Then the twitterers will have something solid to tweet about!

Steve Alker
Xspirt

No, not at all, as long as you follow all the usual Twitter rules and don't over-sell your business!
Twitter is a great tool for business, just use it wisely and use it well.

Good Luck

Andrew

Dear Andrew or @Andrew as I believe the tweeting community puts it - I do wish that I believed you - I'm afraid that I find tweeting a distraction unless it is involved in garnering feedback in B2C companies - as I said above.

However I respect your views, given your background and the quality of advice given by Black and White marketing over the years.

Maybe we could do a quid-pro-quo - I'll do something in databases or metrics or forecasting or CRM for you (Gratis) and you show how me how I can change my perception of Twitter from being a damned nuisance to something useful in the B2B environment we inhabit!

Dear KathyAd,

No. It's not tacky.

The key though is making the tweets relevant enough.

There must be something to compel people to take notice of what
you're saying, or of the link you're directing people to.

Make the context AND the content matter enough to the reader to engage them.

I hope this helps.

Gary Bloomer
Wilmington, DE, USA