Meaningfully using Twitter to connect with, preserve, and improve your brand

October 13, 2014 John Obeto

On June 22, 2014, I posted the tweet below.

3 minute power outage. Thanks to the APC units here, the servers & desktops were uninterrupted. However, I now know the router needs an APC!
— John Obeto II (@johnobeto) June 23, 2014

This past August, Jason Covitz, Director of Marketing Strategy for Schneider Electric, the parent company of APC – formerly American Power Conversion – reached out to me with the following tweet.

@johnobeto thanks for the kind words...what type of router do you have?
— Jason Covitz (@Schneider_jcov) August 6, 2014

Taking it offline, we got introduced, and as a result, I have one of their new products in The Orbiting O’Odua for a SmallBizWindows review.

The use of Twitter to make introductions and create, extend, or repair relationships is a skill most folks do not possess.

Personally, I would have purchased the APC product regardless. I have been an extremely satisfied, and completely loyal APC user since I procured my first unit, an APS BackUPS-100 back in 1990.

The device worked as advertised, and since then, it has been a 100% attach to every server we place, either as VARs, or for managed users.

Suffice it to say, I am quite impressed that Jason reached out.

Why?

Most marketing and PR folks see Twitter as a medium where they shout out supposedly meaningful platitudes about their wares to an unsuspecting public. They also see it as some sort of popularity metric, trying to acquire untold numbers of followers as a way of proving to themselves that they are doing work.

They are not.

For me, the most helpful corporate Twitter accounts are those that proactively take hold of users, whether in good times or not, and try to solve issues.

They attempt to solve your problems to the best of their empowerment, provide helpful information, and help even potential users navigate pitfalls.

I place Jason, and by proxy, Schneider/APC is that august group.

This group includes, but is not limited to the following:

HP @Proliant
HP @ConvergedSys
@HPNetworking
@SouthwestAir
@Thermador
@Logitech_B2B
Microsoft @Office
@XboxSupport

Each of the accounts above have responded to even the most mundane of tweets from me, and by so doing, endeared their charges to me.

I salute you all.

Follow @johnobeto