I’m looking forward to embarking on a new adventure as a corporate tweeter. As such, I’ve taken a good deal of time accumulating best practices for corporate accounts. Many of these are the same as I would recommend for anyone operating a business Twitter account for themselves:

1. Have a mission/message in mind before you post your first tweet.
2. Your message should also consider your target audience.
3. Twitter directories are a good way to gain some followers initially, but there is no get followers quick solution.
4. Be selective in following. There is no need to follow everyone who follows you.
5. Be careful of your language. This is even more important for corporations than for individuals.
6. Your posts are 100% public. Remember that bad news travels faster than good news and anything your shareholders wouldn’t like will travel out of the Twitterverse and onto TV screens and into newspapers.
7. Corporations need to select a voice. It’s best if one person, or a couple of people, man the account, for consistency, and to be sure there’s no redundancy. Most corporations invoke the royal ‘we.’  Other more customer-service oriented Twitter accounts have used an individual speaking from the first person.
8. A regular stream of content is important to any Twitter feed to maintain followers. Appropriate corporate topics include:

• • respond to follower/customer inquiries
  • retweet satisfied customer tweets
  • link to updated/interesting information on corporate websites/blogs
  • retweet updates from affiliated Twitter accounts
  • Twitter contests
  • advance notice of corporate news
  • Twitter discount codes
  • stimulate Twitter discussions with product-related questions
  • product-related trivia
  • run online surveys
  • photos of corporate events

Have some other ideas? Please share in the comments!

Bird art by Triax Mills.

I am so psyched for the new Paul’s Boutique remaster! And the Beastie Boys have done SUCH a great job with this… once you log in, there is so much wonderful online street team promotional stuff to dig into. Days and days of fun. And how can a Beastie Boys fan say no to picking up this album?

Here’s just one of the ‘trading cards’ fans can pick up and paste onto their page or blog to drive traffic to the site. See ya later, I’ve gotta go back to the site… Hey ladies!

the best in mens clothing
visit paulsboutique.beastieboys.com

UPDATE: I just received this package in the mail. I bought the Ultimate Collectors pack, with the poster and the vinyl and the CD and the T-Shirt and it was so frackin worth it! I LOVE IT! OMG I just have to figure out how to frame the 8-foot long poster of the Paul’s Boutique album cover, it’s amazing! Okay, I admit, I called it PHAT when I pulled it out of the box, it took me back. Beastie Boys are in MY HOUSE!

My mom just sent me this photo she dug up of my 13th birthday. You’ll see I’m proudly displaying my new ‘boom’ box. (hah.) Not too long after receiving this, I joined, much to my dad’s chagrin, the Columbia House Record & Tape Club. Remember that?

The deal was always similar – you get a dozen albums or so up front for a penny (or nothing) and buy some number at Club Price in the future to fulfill your agreement. The Club Price was expensive, and then there was shipping and handling. And of course, like other mail order clubs, there was the required rejection card or else you automatically got the monthly selection and a bill to go with it.

I joined when cassettes were the prevailing format, although you could opt to get a vinyl LP if you wanted. VHS movies snuck in at some point, then DVDs became available. They eventually added a frequent buyer program. Reflecting back, it was an amazing transition of direct marketing and music sales.

Now, it’s http://www.columbiahouse.com/ and they’re focusing on DVDs.

I don’t remember all of the tapes in my first order, but some of them were:

• Duran Duran – Rio
• Styx – Kilroy Was Here
• Van Halen – 1984
• Eddie Murphy S/T (the parents did not like that one)
• Def Leppard – Pyromania
• Michael Jackson – Thriller
• Wierd Al Yankovic in 3-D
• Men At Work – Business as Usual

Here’s good old Dick Clark’s commercial for Columbia House on YouTube for you:

Did you ever belong to the Columbia House Record & Tape Club? Did you fill in the gold box or tape a penny to an order form? Do you remember your first 12 albums you ordered?

I really enjoyed the DC Ad Club’s luncheon speakers today, Brad Beckstrom of ApolloBravo Mobile Marketing and Rohit Bhargava, Sr. VP of Ogilvy’s Digital Influence group, author of “Personality Not Included” and Word of Mouth Marketing and Social Media expert.

Rohit talked about word of mouth marketing and how it can be integrated into your advertising, marketing or PR. His philosophy was interesting, and I was impressed to see that Guy Kawasaki wrote a foreword for his book. So I bought one of the signed copies he had there. Reading it now.

Brad filled us in on some recent stats from the CTIA (cellphone industry association) that are pretty astounding. Overall, I was impressed to know that cellphone ownership in the USA has now surpassed that of home PCs and web access. Plus, while more and more people have phones, the number of minutes Americans spend making phone calls has stayed pretty static. But the number of text messages (SMS) has grown exponentially. Of course these SMS messages can be used by companies to contribute to word of mouth campaigns.

Besides the book, I took away one big idea: word of mouth marketing is not something you can buy. But you can push it with advertising you buy or create, whether it’s guerilla marketing, or print, radio, TV advertising or SMS messages with three little words: “tell a friend.”

I love this word — thanks to Springwise for pointing it out, re: one of the newest Snobmoddities, honey.

That’s right. Honey is now exclusive, Nuevo-chic. Do you prefer domestic or imported? Have you been to a honey bar, honey? They’re all the rage!
Read about it at Springwise…

After you’ve seen what honey is doing right now, be sure you understand the power of Snobmoddities. (See Trendwatching)

You’ve seen this in action before. Think about:
• Coffee
• Water
• Homemade dog biscuits

Snobmoddities are all about marketing, and they’re moneymakers. Can it work for you?

Personal recommendations are easily the most powerful – whether you call it viral marketing or word-of-mouth. But what makes it stick? As Seth Godin’s friend Megan at Squidoo notes, here are five key things to look for:

1. First-person experience.
2. Enthusiasm.
3. Specificity.
4. Sincerity.
5. Clarity.

That goes on the bulletin board.
Nice.

It’s the last week of Fishnet Music, a record store I opened 3 years ago with my friend Lisa and her mother Terry in Ocean City, MD.
Our doors will close Friday, March 31 after lots of blood, sweat and tears – mine has been mostly remote, e-mailing ads and website updates from DC, after the first summer of driving back and forth every weekend.
If you live down there, please stop by and get some great deals on CDs and records at our close-out sale. If not, think of us this week. It’s hard to say goodbye. We met some wonderful bands that played in-store performances for us, and really enjoyed giving people an alternative place to look for and learn about music.
www.fishnetmusic.com