Twitter Assignment!

Twitter has become the trend for many of my blog posts lately, and I have to say I have no real problem with that. These things keep me motivated enough to continuously check Twitter feeds when I might normally forget, which was why I found this assignment for social media so helpful. For the class, we were assigned two PR professionals to follow and two company Twitters to follow for one week, all four of our own choosing. I chose to follow the accounts of TOMS shoes @TOMSshoes and soccer team Real Madrid C.F. @realmadrid because they are two of my favorite Twitters and organizations, so it would be easy to keep track of the things they post already. For my PR professionals I chose Erin Pope (@epope), who is a Media Relations Specialist at Nationwide Children's Hospital in Columbus, who I had met at PRSA luncheons and ONU's PaRtners conference, and Kelly Misevich (@KDMisevich), who is a the Partner Engagement and Communications Manager at American Express, and someone I had met last year at Otterbein's PaRtner's conference.

I found that both Erin and Kelly used their accounts for more personal reasons than professional. For Erin, many of her tweets involved quick updates about her day such as this tweet on April 29, which also included a picture of the lunch she attended. Erin does a great job of not simply tweeting about her day but including a visual aspect for her followers and throughout the week, I noticed that she is constantly retweeting people at replying back to them, one of which was our very own Renee LeGendre! She has a great connection to many of the students associated with Central Ohio PRSSA chapters as seen here and here concerning the Prism Awards that took place Thursday, April 21. What I also found was interesting about Erin's tweets was that often times they would be updates about how far she jogged that day and a convenient link to the Nike website that allows runners to track their mileage and I thought it was a unique way to use a Twitter account. In a similar manner to Erin, Kelly often tweeted about more personal things, such as something important she did that day or simply enjoying the sunshine. Also like many of Erin Pope's tweets, Kelly's feed involved many @reply conversations with a few of her followers, and probably friends or other professionals. More often than Erin throughout the week, Kelly updated with various articles she found that might be of interest to her followers and retweeted articles that others have previously posted, such as a helpful "how to" tweet about filtering out the #RoyalWedding hashtags all over your feed. That being said, both professionals utilize hashtags frequently and do so in a way that either describes how they're feeling, like Kelly's #goodmood hashtag and Erin's #tgif, or trending topics like the Royal Wedding or #PRSSA and #COPRSA which were tweeted by Erin. What I liked the most was that their hashtags were something that could easily be understood and not the random hashtags tweeters create but never take off through the Twitter-sphere. I also liked that both of these professionals didn't clog my feed with constant updates, they did a good job of spacing them out every few days.

The two company Twitters that I followed are on two completely different ends of the spectrum, one being an organization that promotes a cause and the other an organization that promotes a world class team, but both have very similar styles for tweeting. Naturally, everything both Real Madrid and TOMS Shoes tweets has something to do with their organization but what I like most about TOMS was the way in which they promoted themselves. Rather than tweeting typical offers and promotions in order to spread the word to their followers -- and then some -- TOMS frequently updates about what their employees are doing around the headquarters and how their fans and customers are wearing their TOMS across the world, which is also something the do on their website in a section called "How We Wear Our TOMS." I like that they can take something so simple, like a picture of someone wearing their TOMS shoes, and turn it into a global message in under 140 characters, because a picture is worth 1,000 words anyway, as they say. The social media specialist for TOMS also takes the time to answer the questions of the organization's followers, for instance providing a link to a TOMS store locator nearest to the tweeter and describing what exactly TOMS is all about. The TOMS Shoes Twitter also utilizes the site by tweeting links to the latest blog updates, which shows just one more way social media can be used on other social media sites.

My favorite soccer team on the other hand, updates similarly in the sense that they tweet frequently and with various links to articles concerning the team, pre-match and post-match updates and promotions for their official website and merchandise, however much of what they tweet involves starting lineups for upcoming games, as well as constant play-by-play updates during a match for those who can't tune in. That might seem bothersome to some but to me, I think it's a great way to use Twitter, especially for those who are constantly using the site and checking Real Madrid's feed during the match. The organization also tweets the same things in Spanish and  English, which is helpful for both Spanish fans and fans who don't speak the native language. As a Spanish minor, it's fun for me to read them in that language instead of just in English. Like the linked tweet that asks how many goals has midfielder Angel di Maria scored for the team, this is just one of the many trivia questions el Madrid's Twitter posts and in my opinion, is useful with keeping your audience engaged in the conversation about the team, as well as promoting the team itself.

Hashtags are an important part of any company Twitter, in order to track who's talking about you, what they're saying and of course, to continue spreading whatever message said company wishes to promote. TOMS and Real Madrid are frequently using hashtags at the ends of their tweets that pertain to both the update posted and the organization itself, such as #TOMSCampus and #realmadrid and #laliga. Lately TOMS has only been using the hashtag mentioned every now and again, from what I saw last week, but in the past for "One Day Without Shoes," they used the hashtag #withoutshoes throughout the entire day. Real Madrid on the other hand, uses the hashtag of their team name at the end of every tweet they make. While they might not be striving to become a trending topic, the constant use of their hashtag makes it easier for followers to find out what the organization is saying in conjunction with other Madrid fans through the use of the search option on the site. And although TOMS is frequently linking back to their official website or their blog, I think they could utilize more with a simple #TOMS or #TOMSshoes hashtag outside of specific events that the organization is holding.