photo credit: Incessant Flux
I’m a bit of a celebrity addict, so when I found out that the gorgeous Alan Davies was on Twitter, I was following like a shot.
I’ve had a massive crush on Alan since well before QI and Jonathan Creek, and his Urban Trauma standup is still, to my mind, one of the funniest routines I’ve seen. I loved Jonathan Creek, devour QI as soon as it appears on YouTube, and would say I’m a pretty loyal fan.
When he appeared on twitter I added him to my ‘celeb’ column in Tweetdeck and sat impatiently waiting to find out more about the man I’d admired for so long. OK, it felt a bit like stalking, but thousand of others were doing it, so that’s OK, right?
What, I wondered, would he Tweet about? Witty one liners, gossip from QI, details of his next public appearance, pictures of his home life? After all, Jonathan Ross & Stephen Fry have been sharing themselves with us, as well as Philip Schofield & Andi Peters, among others. As a Twilebrity follower, I demand to be entertained in this manner!
And the Tweets started flowing. About football. And plumbing. And schoolboy innuendo about tits (the birds, not the breasts folks – see what he did there?)
And do you know what? I got a little bit bored. And even more disappointed. You mean Alan, MY Alan wasn’t funny ALL the time? He did NORMAL things such as make the plumbers a cup of tea and watch telly with his wife (he has a wife – sob!)? Who would have thought it, eh?
I appealed to his better nature and asked him to put out a tweet regarding a charity event (The Great Solent Pedal) and he did, which redeemed him a lot in my eyes. Then he donated money, which elevated him to God status once again.
But pretty soon it was back to plumbers, tits, football and word counts on his latest book writing schedule.
So what’s the point of this post? What’s it got to do with business?
Well, I still adore Alan, I just think he’s a little bit … well.. dull on Twitter. I don’t know what I expected – and it’s not his fault – who the hell am I to tell anyone how to use Twitter? Use it how you want to. I’m not going to stop following him, I’ve had this crush for a long time and I’m not giving up on it yet!
But think about what the people following are expecting from you. In the case of business, your followers could be clients, potential clients, suppliers, advocates and colleagues.
In Alan’s case, the smutty innuendo was mildly amusing (and kind of expected) – your clients may not feel the same if you do it.
Talking about football a lot is boring to me, but obviously of interest to a lot of other AD followers – but if you talk about one thing incessantly you could alienate your followers.
Hearing about the number of words he’s written is of some interest – but I missed the tweet that told us what the book is about, and have no idea if I’ll be interested in it. If you’re a business, don’t presume that your followers have read all your tweets – throw them a clue now and then, and don’t post the same thing all the time.
Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not slating the great Mr D – I love that I know he got really stinky cheese for his birthday, that he eats quinoa and worries about the consequences, and that he actually gets involved in conversations with his followers, unlike a lot of the Twilebrities.
And I won’t stop following because … well, because I’m nosey and still think he’s fab (yeah I know, I’m shameless).
But if you’re in Business and on Twitter, think carefully about the image you’re projecting. Your Tweets are in Google for all to see, even if they’re not following you. Your followers may have a preconceived idea of what they’re going to get from you, and be put out if what they get doesn’t match up.
Vary your Tweets, from business to personal; retweet interesting things occasionally; engage in conversations and make sure that your Tweetstream gives a good all round impression of you and your business style. That way you’ll attract the kind of people who you would want to have as customers.
(Unlike Alan, who has attracted a mad Englishwoman living in France who writes blog posts tenuously linking him to Business on Twitter!)
And because I still think he’s great, here’s one of my favourite clips from Urban Trauma:
