Just because your company is on Twitter doesn't mean that your company Twitters! Interesting discussions lately coming out of a number of camps - for example, see a recent Mashable piece on Twitter and brands. Twitter is a funny thing and it's a different tool to every user.

There's no right or wrong way to twitter, although there is some etiquette and there are some more effective ways to Tweet. Indeed it does boil down to the individual behind the account as to how the account will be used and whether or not the information pushed/pulled via the Twitter is going to be one way, two-way, collaborate, or simply, robotic.

Companies are jumping onto Twitter in hoards and I'm sure many Corps. are quickly appointing an individual to make sure that they get their company out there and on Twitter... but what exactly does that mean? I'll select our friends at ESRI as an example... @ESRI is where you'll find the official corporate Twitter account for ESRI... but does that mean that ESRI is "on Twitter" - I guess it does. The company has obviously appointed an individual to maintain the Twitter for them and material (mostly news and announcements) are pushed to the account, mostly via RSS (ala Twitterfeed). This has become a common way for the corporate Twitter account to take life... makes sense forr the busy business (I suppose). Setup a push for your news and let the Twitter homepage take on a life of its own. I asked some of my Twitter contacts how they felt about this and if they find it useful (some responses are found below)... those interested in staying informed of ESRI's news announcements indeed felt it to be useful. To be fair to ESRI, they are hardly the only company that uses this approach - many companies and news publishers simply adopt the RSS push (twitterfeed) approach. Others, like @TerraGo, use Twitter not only to push news (although they do that) but they also actively engage customers, PR people like myself, and the public to educate and inform them about the company and their solutions.

Of interest to the ESRI followers, the official @esri is not the only way you can interact with the company on Twitter - enter @JimBarry. Jim heads up the EDN program and is very active on Twitter. I had a chance to speak with Jim a couple of weeks ago and we discussed ESRI's foray into social media and Twitter. ESRI seems to be treading carefully into this space but is also not holding back their employees, rather, letting those that are early adopters embrace the technology and use it to better communicate amongst themselves and with their customers (similar to the blogosphere several years ago)... well done! I would also encourage other GIS and Geo Technology forms to look at this approach, using tools like Twitter to not only promote themselves and their news, but as a communication tool to provide technical assistance to customers, solicit feedback from users, and even listen in on what others are saying about them - A tip: at search.twitter.com you can create a search on any term (like your company name) and have the results pushed to an RSS feed)

So, if you're new to Twitter and looking for companies to follow, start off by simply searching by the company name. Beware that when you follow some of them, the official corp Twitters may not follow you in return - actually, many of them, like @esri, don't follow anyone at all (although some like @NAVTEQ will follow back and they are very interactive with a real person behind the scenes) - in my mind, a big mistake! What this means is that you will not be able to directly contact the person behind the account using Twitter (if they don't follow you back) although if you talk about them they will likely hear you. Look a little deeper and you'll likely find a real person from the company who's actively engaged in discussions (like @jimbarry) this is where Twitter really gets to be useful and fun!

There are no right or wrong ways to Twitter, although, there are many things you can do to make your Twitter experience more productive and useful. In my mind, Twitter will become useful once you reach a critical mass of people to follow and people that follow you... until then it may be a rather lonely experience. History to date seems to indicate that if people (or companies) follow you, you should follow them back (provided they are of interest to your industry). I currently have a 3:4 ratio of people I follow : followers. In my mind, corporate twitter users should take this into account and realize that when people follow you and they then try to contact you (or D reply via Twitter) if you aren't following them they could in fact get a little ticked off... is this what you want? For more information about Twitter branding and the corporate Twitter, check out this recent post on Mashable and be sure to read the dozens of interesting comments for some great advice.

Here's a few comments I received from my followers regarding the corporate Twitter account that doesn't follow them in return:
-  twitter is a *social* network. If you can't be social, like @XXXX isn't, then you shouldn't be on twitter
- I refuse to follow twitterfeed posters. If that's all you do, you don't get twitter, and therefore don't deserve to be followed.
- If the feed is used that way, and it is known when you subscribe, then it's OK with me - I follow a few like that, CNN, NYTimes
- employees following users is more important for discussion
- My opinion is they prefer a one way mouthpiece, and/or haven't really devoted a "person" to it. Useful? That depends.
- I actually don't mind because it allows me to use twitter as my main news source.

So, if you have a Twitter account do you use a picture of your face or a logo for your profile? In my mind there's 2 ways to go here: If YOU are the Twitterer then it's likely appropriate to use a photo or likeness of you... this implies that the Tweet is being posted by a REAL person. For a corporate twitter or one that is pushed by an RSS feed (twitterfeed) then using a corporate logo is appropriate. For an example of what not to do I'll pick on MAshable.. yes that's right, I'll pick on one of the biggest social networking resources on the web. If you follow @Mashable, you'll notice that  tweets coming from them look like they come directly from Pete Cashmore - afterall, you always see his face. Now I would have to think that this would be appropriate if you were following@petecashmore but given that MAshable's tweets appear to come from a number of authors it really would make more sense for the photo associated with @mashable to be a Mashable graphic or logo. When you follow me (@gletham) you see my mug, if you follow @gisuser or @lbszone (our publication tweets) you see a logo indicating that it's a corporate Twitter account. Make sense?

So, as a PR/Analyst, and GIS technical geek what do I get out of twitter? Most noteworthy I'm treated to:
- staying abreast of news and geeky tech tips
- hearing how Geo people get through their day
- learning about social & new media
- hearing directly from developer programs and developers
- meeting local business people like those from chamber of commerce, finance people
- listening in on developers and techno innovators
- getting live feeds from tech events and learning about new events
- making a few new friends, many who I've already met in person too!

Note, you can follow me on "my" twitter via @gletham and you can also follow our "corporate" Twitters @gisuser and @lbszone.

Some Corporate GIS / Geo Technology Twitters you might wish to follow include:
@esri (see also @jimbarry) @WHERE @navteq @mapmaven @erdas @gotgeoint @mapicurious (sorry if I left you out!)

ERDAS is on Twitter are you?

FYI: at the time of the writing I searched Twitter for a name of a major Geo Technology player and their username/company name was still available! I contacted them and told them to go reserve that name before someone else jumped on it... do you own your twitter name?

Twitter isn't only for corporations, Government agencies are jumping on board as well (as they should). Above you can see the @gotGeoint Twitter official Twitter for the National Geospatial Intelligence Association

Some useful Twitter add-ons of interest:

• http://twitterfeed.com/ Feed your RSS feed to twitter
  
• http://www.twellow.com/ - a fine Twitter search directory
  
• http://www.twittertise.com/ - advertise on Twitter!
  
• http://twittercal.com/ - connect Twitter and your Google Calendar
  
• http://useqwitter.com/ - get an email when someone stops following you!
  
• http://apps.facebook.com/twitter/ - feed your twitter to facebook
  
• http://search.twitter.com/ - search Twitter.com
  
• http://twitter.com/twingr - create your own Tweet Community
  
• http://www.tinytwitter.com/ - a mobile Twitter app
  
• http://www.twitterfone.com - Twitter from your iPhone
  
• http://orangatame.com/products/twitterberry/ - Twitter from your BlackBerry
  
• http://pr140.com - create small/tiny urls for use on Twitter
• http://www.twibble.de - location aware, mobile Twitter client
• m.slandr.net - another terrific mobile Twitter client
  

Glenn Letham has been a long time geo-social media activist and participant. You can follow Glenn on Twitter @gletham - you can follow GISuser updates @gisuser or LBSzone updates via @lbszone

If you have comments, something to add, or simply want to give a shout out about your GIS / Geo presence on Twitter, please jump to the Blog and leave a comment on this post... thanks! 

If you enjoyed this article and enjoy following me (Glenn) on Twitter then please consider casting your vote for a Shorty!

** NEW ** - Does your company (or do you) maintain a blog, Twitter, Facebook Group or other micro-blogging social media outlet? IF so then list details in our GISuser Directory under the Geo-Social  Network listings category!