A piece of research undertaken by New Media Age highlights just how many major brands are failing to embrace Twitter and use it to help manage their reputation:

“The research analysed the Twitter activity of the 500 brands in the 2009/10 Superbrands list during the week of 19 November 2009. It revealed 74% had no presence at all on the micro-blogging site.

On Twitter, daily updates are considered a standard. But according to the survey, of the 130 Superbrands with a presence on Twitter, just 50 used the site daily. A further 54 had tweeted once a week. However, 29 were tweeting once an hour or more.”

Those sites mentioned tweeting daily, even hourly, are clearly making the most of this very useful Direct To Public tool, but the others are kinda missing the point.

Brands, if you have a twitter account…

• Watch how other brands do it, and do it well (ASOS would be a case in point)
• Allocate time and resources to monitor and respond to tweets
• Issue interesting daily updates to keep your followers interested
• Remember that this is inherently a two-way street – don’t spam your follows with repetition or just send out blatantly commercial ad/sales messages
• Respond to complaints and criticisms directly, being as personal as possible in the responding tweet

If you don’t…

• Get one! But only if you are going to commit and run it properly. Otherwise best not to bother until you have the capacity and inclination to do so
• …making sure in the process that no one else is running an account under your brand name (this happens)
• Start by following everyone who follows a competitor or any other relevant twitter account – soon people will find and follow you back
• If in doubt, get some experienced advice to help manage the content you distribute the right kind of message to the right people

And don’t go thinking that Twitter ‘just isn’t relevant’ for your audience. There are over 3 million people using Twitter at the last count and somewhere in that lot will be at least some representatives of your target audience. If you are a mass market brand, the vast majority of people on Twitter will be relevant as they are consumers like everyone else. So don’t fall into the trap of thinking that Twitter is still just the private chat space for media types.

Ultimately, Twitter is just one example of how PR has come full circle and is very much about PUBLIC relations once more, rather than just media relations. Those brands which aren’t willing to engage with the public direct, via Twitter or otherwise, will inevitably find themselves rapidly falling behind.