Thursday, May 14, 2009

Pink Porsche CEO Knows a Thing or Two about Twitter Engagement


News is out that a smattering of CEOs are on Twitter, but are they actually holding to Twitter’s unsaid golden rule of engagement?

Seven of the eighteen CEOs mentioned in this article hold their update numbers to a miniscule double digit showing—with thousands of people following them. The question then is: What’s the point of following? Is it really for the tweets or for the fame and possible fortune of being replied to by a CEO?

That leaves us with 11 CEOs who do understand engagement on Twitter, and even though their follower numbers may be shoe-ins for the next Ashton Kutcher, we can’t forget about those up and coming rising Twitter CEO stars who offer quality conversations microblogging style.

That’s where my Twinterview with @AmandaVega comes in. Ms. Vega is a CEO on Twitter who operates and owns Amanda Vega Consulting. While her Twitter page just recently hit the 1,000 followers mark, she understands the purpose of transparency and engagement— and in this case, quality beats quantity. Among the things that I envy about her (besides the fact that she’s a CEO who manages 87+ workers): she owns a "pink" Porsche, though, I’d prefer "speed yellow."

But no matter if you own a pink Porsche or a ’99 white Nissan Altima (my car), @AmandaVega enjoys your company. Just because she’s rich, doesn’t mean she’s off limits to tweeting with you, which is more than I can say for the many unresponsive CEOs on Twitter). I asked Ms. Vega several questions regarding her reason for being on Twitter, and here’s what she had to say:

@AxiomPR: As a CEO, what are you hoping to accomplish by being on twitter?
@AmandaVega: I am hoping to extend brand and also provide education and ideas to everyone else trying to figure out monetizing social media. Idea sharing. I use my personal twitter share knowledge, help others extend their causes/brands, and push info to ppl that may miss otherwise.

@AxiomPR: Do you think microblogging is the next best thing? What 'next best things' will be coming to the social media realm, iyo?
@AmandaVega: I think next "best" things will be custom content delivery, extension of bus online thru social media, and more smartphone tools for life

@AxiomPR: Have you found ur being on twitter has led to business leads. If so, can you provide a ratio -- online (twitter) to offline leads.
@AmandaVega: No business leads. Some good PR, and sales for customers, but no leads for us. Those on here usually already have a team doing soc media

@AxiomPR: How would you say most company CEOs are using Twitter, and does the C-suite approach work?
@AmandaVega: Many CEOs are sadly using Twitter via a PR or mktg firm to push the same adv messaging, not really using social media as a 2 way convo. The small bus CEO's seem to be trying to extend brand and sell stuff, and reach out

@AxiomPR: Are ur employees on Twitter representing you or their own personal account, or r u one woman shop?
@AmandaVega: We have 87+. They are all on personally. We don't make them rep us through our brand - they make up our brand - so that's all that matters

@AxiomPR: What are the clients you specialize in and do you find their product/service types on Twitter?
@AmandaVega: We have clients of all types: organic, baby, nanotech, clothing, food. We use soc med tied into PR/mktg to extend brand and use transparent honest personas/brand zealots/moms/scientists/doctors on our team to help talk back and forth in many convos w/links

@AxiomPR: Are you forming what the new PR strategy is calls "Strategic alliances" to keep overhead and long man hours down?
@AmandaVega: Usually the agencies use us to do that. We have large contractor staff and been doing socmed for 15 years - so yes alliances, but flipped. The company has been built like that from ground up really to keep overhead low, profit high, and custom deliverables for each client.

Like Ms. Vega, I’m sure there are many up and coming Twitter CEO stars, and to help the little big CEOs, I’d like to create an ongoing list of CEOs you’ve come across on Twitter offering quality conversation tweets. While you're searching, check out what Amanda Vega Consulting can do for you here.

Thanks for reading!
Tim