Christine Perkett recently asked for examples of corporations which were successfully using Twitter. She found a few good ones, although the total number is quite small. Her list:
I don't follow any of those myself, although I have gotten a fair number of follow notifications from users who appear to be corporate entitities. Most of these appear to be bald-faced attempts to get me to follow them, but they if they don't seem interested in my opinion or if I don't have some relationship with them I don't see why I should reciprocate. In any event, half of them appear to be inactive, perhaps the artifact of a half-hearted experiment or a startup that didn't get off the ground.
Some businesses that I would like to see participate in Twitter:
- airlines - let me know of promotions, weather problems, listen to my travel stories
- TV shows - let me know when Saturday Night Live is really live and not a rerun
- Department of Homeland Security - tell me when we can stop being at level Orange
On the other hand, I'm not sure I want all these places watching me. Tweets are certainly public knowledge but it does feel kind of creepy to have faceless entities following what I send. I'm waiting for the first court case to cite someone's Twitter history as evidence, or at least as probable cause. Certainly the ethos of Twitter is more closely aligned with real people sending and receiving. Perhaps Seesmic would offer sharper distinctions. It's hard to be anonymous when you have to send a video of yourself.
Let Christine know what you think by commenting on her post or tweet @missusP.
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