Twitter Courtesy

We just started a twitter account for work-- eh, free advertising and such plus makes it easier for me to update our facebook page…so that brings up a question.

Do I send a personal note to each person that follows us? When I get a note back thanking me, do I respond as well?

Or does everyone just click follow to anything/anyone that seems like their interests match and forget all the personal stuff?

Just wondering what someone else does…thanks.

People do not usually send notes to followers; if there’s an acknowledgement for a particularly noteworthy follower it might be mentioned in a tweet (that is the medium, after all :)). The closest you get to that sort of behavior in general is following them back, which is fairly common for non-corporate users, but less so for corporate based in part on how large some of them get. When you follow each other, direct messages are possible both ways.

Cool, thanks.

It really depends on what you’re looking to get out of your Twitter account as a business, but a response or thank you for the follow is not currently not expected.

On the other hand, it’s an opportunity to be a little different. As long as someone is following you, it’s possible to send a private message (but only possible for them to respond if you’re also following them).

The team behind Sony’s “It only does everything” Playstation VP account (@TheKevinButler) have it so that following the account gets you a “personal” direct message automatically. Some examples include: “Hey there. Thanks for the follow. Please don’t take this the wrong way, but, I look forward to blowing tiny chunks of wisdom at you.” and “Thanks for the follow. Now you stay on your side of the computer and I’ll stay on mine. KB can’t afford another palimony suit.”

If you can handle it, a follow seems like a good time to send back a DM along the lines of “Thanks for the follow! Here’s a link to some info about our company - <link>” as way of introduction.

A little extra free marketing never hurts either.