According to a recent article on Sky News, President Barack Obama is looking for a “social networks manager” to take charge of his MySpace and Facebook pages and keep his Twitter account up to date.
The first question which popped into my mind when I read this was “If I didn’t have time to post my own tweets and engage with my followers, would I let some one else post tweets on my behalf?”
My immediate response was “Not a chance”, but after giving it a bit more thought, I realised that my decision would depend on whether I was tweeting on behalf of a company or brand, or using twitter to communicate with my personal network.
My answer would remain the same for my personal twitter account, as the reason I use Twitter is to follow and engage with people and brands that I know, want to get to or think highly of.
When it comes to a company twitter profile, I would be happy for someone to tweet on my behalf if they knew the company inside out, and had a clear understanding of what we were trying to achieve by engaging with our customers on social media platforms.
The job description for Obama’s ghost tweeter says the right person needs to have “strong organising and campaigning instincts; you can craft messages that move people to act, and you know what actions will achieve the right impact at the right time”.
Even with this calibre of relevant skills, would you let someone tweet on your behalf?
