What happens when you stop Tweeting?

Considering that 3 out of 4 Americans are now considered to be using social technology and that visitation to social sites has become more popular than email, it’s safe to say that social media is here, it’s relevant, and it’s probably not going anywhere for a while. With that in mind, clients and brands have begun turning the corner on not only accepting social media’s relevance, but have even begun making efforts at getting in the game.

And this is where they start to realize pretty quickly... this game is a lot harder you think. Let’s take a recent example: Client A hired an agency to develop a social media strategy, and manage their 2 main accounts on Twitter and Facebook. The client had a social media presence for the first time ever, many of their posts were being re-tweeted, and they were being followed by some prominent industry insiders. They were becoming relevant to a whole new audience, which is a good thing. By virtue of all the attention, they were even getting more and more traffic to their recently upgraded website, which again, was a “winning” scenario.

But then, the client felt that managing it entirely in house was something they could handle. Since that happened, their tweets went silent. Not only did their loyal followers start missing out on their timely updates, but they now had no voice to respond to the doubters, or rep to answer custom related question. Direct messages have gone unanswered, followers are no longer being followed back, and what once looked like a thriving social media presence for them, has fallen dormant.

The moral of the story is that while social media is good, making sure you have a long term plan in mind in better. Just like having a billboard with a phone number that’s disconnected or a web link that’s broken, if you don’t think these things all the way through, you’re going to become the topic of online conversations for all the wrong reasons.