I was reading an excellent article by Mark Lee on how accountants should choose their Twitter name. It also made me think a little further, and I would like to add some more thoughts to the article.
Check your firm’s guidelines
Before you merrily start chopping and changing your Twitter name, do check your firm’s guidelines for Twitter. Someone may have already done the thinking for you, and there is an established protocol for how people in the firm should brand themselves on Twitter. Readers of this blog will already know that I advocate that these protocols should be recorded in the firm’s social media policy. If you are thinking, “but my firm doesn’t have this in its social media policy”, then maybe it’s time to speak with the marketing department or partner responsible for marketing, and get them to dust off your firm’s policy and give it a good refresh.
What are you trying to achieve with Twitter?
If your firm is aiming to build awareness of its brand, then it is worth seeing whether it is possible to intelligently include the firm’s name in people’s Twitter names. Once again, this is a decision which needs to be decided, ideally, before you choose your Twitter name. If you would like some help to think about the content you would like to share to build your online footprint, then download our free guide to content planning.
Are you allowed to tweet in a professional capacity?
Many professional service firms such as Deloitte get very nervous if anyone other than a partner starts tweeting in a way which could be seen as representing firm views. If you want to tweet to help you generate business and attract clients for the firm, do speak with your partner or marketing department to see how you can go about doing that. It may be such that you are able to tweet via the practice area’s twitter account, or that you need to include a disclaimer that your tweets are your views and not your employers.
