Twitter closes the gap between professional and personal
February 20th, 2009
I was absorbed in some lunchtime tweets today and started to feel a little schizophrenic. My Twitter path consists of client promotion, Wax info, personal thoughts and conversations with friends. (Not to mention that weird story about the hair weave stopping a bullet…still freaked out about that one) No wonder big business is scared to hop into social media. All that stuff we learned about “protecting the brand” goes out the window when you’re swimming in the sea of online chatter. But should we really care? After all a brand is the perception of a product or service in the mind of the customer. Too many fat cat marketers have forgetten that – you don’t “create” a brand. It evolves based on your integrity, your service and yes…your personality.
Maybe Twitter is destroying that supposedly required separation of “personal” vs. “business”. Customers buy from brands and people they trust. So maybe by letting them see our personal side, even if it’s only online, we’re actually building that intangible part of our brand that has to do with trust. Trust that comes from knowing what to expect, because you know the character of the person – or company. @zappos has taken that idea and embraced it wholeheartedly. I imagine the company is thriving because of it. We feel like we all know the guy at the top…on his good AND his bad days. He’s our friend so that’s where we get our shoes.
At least that’s what I tell Charlton when the giant box of shoes arrives weekly at our door.
So tell me, what other CEO’s are doing a great job of using social media?
