Twitter is being curated to death by its corporate users. If you’re in B2B, you’ve noticed that there are a lot of companies broadcasting stuff but with very little engagement. That’s because the human element is disappearing from all this communication. Sound absurd? You bet.
Your content is curated, but how well is it being curated?
Many companies seriously on twitter are tweeting about 6 – 12 times a day. Why? To make sure they get coverage. I look away from my twitter streams for 10 minutes and about 30 tweets have gone by. There is no way I am going to look back into these streams to see what I missed. Does anybody? That’s why so much content is being put out there.
How do companies put out so much content? For the most part, with content curation. Software that collects articles of interest, that are trending. You choose the topics and it collects. You then decide which articles get tweeted. Sort of. It’s more like “how quickly can I top up this buffer account so I can get on to something more useful?” And that’s basically what it feels like on the receiving end too.
There is a lot of interesting content on the web, that’s certain. But for the most part, looking at your twitter streams is like:
- I’ve already read that (it’s trending).
- I’ve read a similar piece that says just about the same thing
- That’s interesting but why did they tweet that?
- That’s interesting, but doesn’t help me
- Radiohead is weird. I’ll watch that again later.
Some companies are pushing automating content even further by putting out curated content in “newspaper” format. Open one of these up and it’s usually a jumble of articles, some of which you read months ago.
They’ve saved time, and wasted yours.
Suggestions
Can I offer some suggestions?
- Consider unplugging your content curation, if you feel it isn’t helping customers get interested in you. Are your prospects on twitter at all?
- If you are going to continue to use content curation, seriously raise the bar in terms of what you consider worth tweeting. You’ll have less content but 1 to 3 tweets a day is fine.
- Write from your perspective. Even if you make furniture support assemblies (no offence), an original tweet from you will automatically be more interesting than any of the repetition out there. Because it’s your perspective and your experience of the industry. And because you are not a robot, which still counts for something.
- Integrate your opinion. One of the main problems with curation is that it doesn’t have an opinion. At best, it is just a forum for other opinions. How are we to get to know a company’s values through content curation?
- Write from topics that are very specific to your customers and your region. It will increase your relevance to your customers and, in a way, help qualify your prospects.
- Write about how you’ve solved customer problems. Cool industry stats make for interesting information, but a solutions to a pain point is relevant information, and it is much more valuable.
Twitter shines in events
If you’ve no time to write at all, then use twitter only on occasion, the way it really shines: during live events, contests and during trade shows, when it creates a real feeling of community, immediacy, and magic. You know, that human stuff :).
If you’d like to talk about how to create relevant content, reach out to us. If you’d like to learn more about how to be heard above all the noise, you can also download our ebook on the subject.
Talk to you later.
