The more you use Twitter the more interesting it becomes and the more you learn about other people and yourself.

As I have previously written I have only recently been discovering what Twitter means to me and have still not really completely settled on what that is.

What I do know for sure is that Twitter isn’t RSS. It doesn’t really work if all you do is automatically feed it through recently posted entries, Tweeting out a link and the headline. As a user there are other more effective tools that you can use that for and as a publisher there is a whole lot more you can do with Twitter.

I recently had a conversation with Dan Thornton, Community Marketing Manager at Bauer Media, who outlined the following to me.

Twitter is a place for individuals, including those that work for a company or brand, to interact on a personal level – so their messages are far more valuable than an automated feed from a website or blog post.

By authentically posting, you add details and personality, giving it much more value and impact – which encourages people to interact with you and build up a relationship with you and the company you work for.”

Dan Thornton, Community Marketing Manager at Bauer Media

If as a user I come to a site and am tech savvy enough to want news updates automatically fed through to me as soon as they happen; then I will have an RSS reader, I might not want a the personal touch that Twitter can add, I just want to know when news has happened and read it, RSS performs that function perfectly.

As a user, choosing to follow somebody or something on Twitter means you want more a more intimate relationship with the person or brand. You want to interact and have a conversation on a personal level.

As Dan mentioned this gives that communication much more value and impact and creates the possibility for people and brands to forge more meaningful, intimate relationships.

Let’s look at a couple of examples.

1. I stopped following Reuters yesterday because as I mentioned to Dan (@badgergravling) via Twitter “The more I use Twitter the more automatically generated posts become invisible.”

Looking at their Tweets resembles looking at an automatically generated RSS Feed. Entries like this can work sometimes when you send them out. These tended to come in all at the same time a few times a day so would temporarily completely take over my twitter feed and crowd out message people have spent time personalising.

I still don’t completely disagree with sending out entries like this but I think there needs to be a balance so that the quality of what you are sending out to people makes them anxiously anticipate the next one an enjoy it for what it is not just as a promotional link.

Reuters is a news service so we could look at this as exactly what we would expect from them. They are still a brand though and this is a missed opportunity for their brand to start a conversation with it’s consumers rather than telling them something that they can already get somewhere else.

http://twitter.com/reuters

2. If we look at Dan’s tweets you can instantly see that it’s very much a conversational broadcast platform. It’s interesting and intimate.

This is a personal twitter page rather than a brand’s page, as in the Reuters example above. We need not think that because of that they should be different and the Reuters should be doing what they are doing and Dan should be doing what he is doing.

http://twitter.com/badgergravling

The second example above is clearly the more engaging one as the entries come in different shapes and sizes. This is going to hold my attention and keep me more interested in them.

As a twitter novice it’s really easy when you first come to Twitter as a brand to think that the best use of Twitter for you will be to set up Twitter feed and let it go to work and that’s it, just leave it to pick up the occasional click through to your content.

The fact is – you then miss out on the ability Twitter offers your brand to have an ongoing dialogue with your consumer and for them to really engage with your brand values and build up a strong relationship with it. The users who are then following your Brand and receiving personal communications from it on a regular basis are more likely to buy into other aspects of the Brand.

I read a book by Kevin Roberts, CEO Worldwide of Saatchi & Saatchi, a few years ago called Lovemarks: the future beyond brands.

One of the key factors that is crucial in turning your brand into a Lovemark is your consumer having an intimate relationship with it.

The third signature of a Lovemark is that people feel they have an intimate connection with it (the brand). Intimacy is about body contact, scent, touch. You want to be close.  You feel pain when it is withdrawn. The signposts about community, loyalty and relationships fit right here.”

saatchikevin.com

The ability Twitter has to make that intimate connection with a consumer rather than just push out automatically generated links is what makes it so special and what gives a brands presence on the service real value and purpose.

Talk to your followers, start a conversation with them, love them and they will love you.