Should a brand build a single twitter account or ask each of its employees to build their own affiliated twitter accounts? It depends on the brand and why they are on twitter.

I will follow an employee’s affiliated twitter account if they have personality, or if they offer unique insight or access. Their actions do reflect on their company and impact my perceptions of it. In some situations, I have no interest in following an individual’s account. Take the online deal site Woot for example. I don’t care what their product manager had for lunch, I just want a good deal now.

I like Perkett PR’s approach to twitter. Their brand’s account features the picture of everyone who contributes to it. Each one also has individual accounts.

There are other more complicated considerations involved in creating employee-affiliated twitter accounts. Who owns the account? What happens to the goodwill and equity the employee created for your brand when she leaves the company?

In an ideal world, a brand would carefully select, train and celebrate its twitter brand evangelists. While their training would cover a code of conduct and key speaking points, it would also empower twitter brand evangelists to express their unique personality and willingness to help.

Until a brand can be sure that every person tweeting on its behalf exemplifies these qualities, I would stick with a single brand account.

Dharmesh Shah of Hubspot responded to my last blog entry by expressing this concern:

“I was very interested in the notion of linking one’s profile page on twitter to a specific/custom landing page on your primary website…My one concern would be: When visitors to a twitter profile click on the website link, are they expecting to learn more about the company/offering or more about the individual? Does the intermediate page just get in the way?”

My notion of a brand’s landing page for Twitter would feature the brand and the individuals that work there-not a single individual.

It would feature the more human qualities of a brand. For example, Flickr photos from a staff get together, funny quotes from the company’s leadership, cool or unusually things you could do with a product.

Take Hubspot for example, I would like to see pictures of Hubspot at social media events, links to blog entries that discuss Hubspot, some cool or little known facts about how to use Hubspot and podcasts and video interviews with the companies leadership. It would be great to capture testimonials from people using Twitter Grader and post their Twitter handle too. And as an added benefit, interview and feature some of your favorite people on twitter using Hubspot and what they love about it.

If I am in a personal relationship with a brand, which following a brand on twitter might just qualify as one, then I would like the brand’s profile to serve as a special doorway granting me access to a place that other regular customers do not have access to.

After all, I have expressed this interest, demonstrated by following you, that I want to engage–so don’t invite me to the same homepage that all of your customers go to–create a VIP section just for me. Show me you’re paying attention to me as closely as I’m paying attention to you.

I reviewed 10 brands using Twitter and found most of them are using the service to publish alerts and special deals. Occasionally, they will infuse their personality into their tweet stream but with much less frequency than imagined. I continue to read how brands and their agencies invest in influencer models to determine who is important. I think there is an even greater opportunity to focus on the content that these brands are sharing on Twitter. Now that a brand has a forum in which to talk, what will it say?

An influential blog post recently suggested that brands should skip blogging in order to microblog. I think that’s a bad suggestion for many reasons. Having a blog provides a brand with context inside of social media. Whereas a microblog provides the opportunity to share short thoughts, what happens if a potential customer is interested in exploring those ideas in more depth? Should they click on a corporate website? No. They should be able to visit the brand’s blog, a place where ideas are shared between brand and customer and the conversation that began on social media can continue.

I was surprised by the lack of brands whose Twitter bio linked to a blog or a personalized landing page. For the most part, the Twitter bios linked directly to the brand’s homepage such as with JetBlue. This is a huge, missed opportunity. At the very least, a brand can create a custom headline: “Welcome twitter friend,” as my friend Steve has done with his blog. In the best-case scenario, the brand can celebrate its Twitter fans on a custom-landing page, flex some blog bling, like its Twitter Grader rank report or a Tweet Cloud.

When a brand’s bio sends someone from a Twitter account to their homepage it’s the equivalent of having a quiet, personal conversation with someone at a restaurant and walking into their house to have them yell at you. Dear Brand, don’t yell at me.

Carolina Fowler contributed to this research.

If you would like to download the study, please click here.

Check out this ad I found on Time.com’s website. It’s a 300×250 ad unit which uses a similar look and feel as Time Magazine’s brand. To what extent did the similar look and feel of this ad to the Time brand result in an increased click through rate? Some of the highest click through rates I have seen are from brands using similar tactics. Of course, it makes it even better for the advertiser that the editorial features the same celebrity as the ad.

A RSS reader is a sales person’s secret weapon. This blog post explains what an RSS reader is and how it will enhance your sales process. The RSS reader makes it easier to gain market and competitive insights and become a resource to your clients.

Step 1 – How RSS works.
This 3:44 minute video explains the basics.

Step 2 – Select your Reader.
I recommend Bloglines for salespeople. I created a “How to use Bloglines” guide here:

How to Use Bloglines

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: guide bloglines)

Step 3 – Get Great Content.
Visit Alltop to find niche blogs. Subscribe directly to newspapers and websites you frequently visit.

Step 4 – Customize your Content.
Go to Google News, enter a search term and click “Search News”. Use your reader to subscribe to that search term to receive constant updates sent directly to your reader.

Step 5 – Get Newsletters.
Bloglines will give you your own email address to use when signing up for newsletters. You can sign up for your competitors’ newsletters too.

Step 6 – Folder like a Pro.
Group your feeds together in folders named for how you will use the information. For example, call one folder, “Read to understand
my market,” and another folder, “Read to prepare for a sales meeting”.

Step 7 – Build a sales resource library.
Clip and save your articles to folders. Name each folder according to step 6. When you are preparing for a sales meeting, use your clippings to provide value to your clients.