On Twitter, it’s okay for businesses to be irrelevant

There has been a lot of discussion about staying relevant on social media, rightfully so. Too many businesses are trying to “fit in” on Facebook and Google+ by posting funny images that they found on any of the various funny picture resources out there. They are not the right venues for such activities from a business perspective. Twitter, however, is.

On Twitter, there is less of a differentiation between businesses and individuals. Facebook and Google+ both have pages for businesses that are handled differently from individual profiles. On Twitter, a profile is a profile whether it’s a person, a business, or a anything else. An update is an update and most users could care less where it comes from as long as it’s interesting. Whoever you are, person or entity, you can attract views and social media capital by posting things that are often too irrelevant to post on Facebook or Google+.

You never know when something’s going to blow up and go viral.

Case in point, while I was at the New Media Expo in Las Vegas this week, an image struck me as funny and I posted it. Somewhere along the line it was seen by a “power account” and retweeted, starting a nice string of retweets that has kept my phone blowing up for the past couple of days. It didn’t matter who I was. I could have been a business for all they cared. The content worked and it spread across Twitter.

The point is that businesses can be a little more risky, a little less relevant, and a little more fun on Twitter than they can on the other major social networks. The same holds true for Pinterest, but that’s another story altogether. Here’s the Tweet. Feel free to retweet it if you like!

I think a bird fell in the snow and walked away. I think. twitter.com/louiebaur/stat…

— Louie Baur(@louiebaur) January 7, 2013

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“Irrelevant” image courtesy of Shutterstock.