Should My Firm Tweet?

I have a problem with professional service firms tweeting versus the individuals in them tweeting - via Twitter, of course.  I follow a PR gal from a big PSF firm and she tweets for the firm, not for herself.  So, the tweets are mini press releases.

A young analyst talked to me about creating a "Mercer Capital page" and tweeting as a firm, rather than as a person.  How can the result for a PSF be anything but mostly boring mini press releases?  There are alternatives, I suppose.  "The firm," via you, could tweet about its inner workings - the personalities and politics that every firm deals with.  However, while a great many followers would be gained, that alternative will result in your unemployment and possibly legal troubles.  Bad idea. 

If we, as a firm, tweet, we'll do it strategically via one or two professionals who are passionate about what they do. There are really only 4 steps to get started: 1) get buy-in from firm management.  2) give the individuals guidelines.  This is vitally important.  3) help them find people to follow, and 4) then let them tweet as themselves, sharing information about their professional passions.  Of course, we will follow their tweets.

But we may not pursue that strategy at all.  There are opportunity costs to everything we do and tweeting done well takes time.  Not to mention the unsettled argument about whether it creates business opportunities or is just a fad.  I won't weigh in on that.  I also won't use Twitter for mini press releases.

Any decent PSF marketing director works to understand what their people are passionate about and calculates the opportunity costs of every marketing venture.  I do not believe our firm has lost anything by not tweeting.  I may be wrong but am comforted by knowing that we don't hang our hat on only one marketing tactic or channel.  Visit our website to learn more about all we do and get a flavor of our marketing philosophy.  If we begin to tweet, I will let you know.  And if you know of any PSFs that tweet and do it well, send me a note so I can follow them.