As an intern at enVista this summer, I have been in charge of managing our Twitter account and observing the feedback and coverage that we receive from it.
My opinion is to create one company profile. This way the attention from your followers is focused directly on the company rather than the individuals in the company. Every time a tweet will pop up in their feed, the name next to the tweet will be your company rather than an individual in your company.

posted June 14, 2010

Paul-

It's really up to you. Both methods can prove equally effective, but whatever you choose, everyone has to be on board and syncronized. I recommend you take a look at "Twitter Marketing: An Hour a Day" by Hollis Thomases; it addresses this exact question in depth:

"Multiple Twitter accounts are appropriate in the following examples:

• Individuals who want to keep business interactions and personal dealings separate by setting multiple Twitter accounts" [this addresses B]
• Companies may decide to maintain one Twitter account solely for customer service and another for official company news and updates" (Thomases, 131).

There were more points listed, but you get the picture. The main issue here, however, is making sure all are on board:

"Whether you assign corporate tweeting to a single person or to a team, the effort should be overseen and appropriately coordinated. If you use a multiuser management tool like those we described in Chapter 6 [ie. Hootsuite, etc.], who, when, and how your representatives respond should be defined to avoid confusion. You should also spell out how you want people to respond in your company's Social Media Policy" (Thomases, 324).

My personal opinion is that each person should have their own separate profile, with their handle being their first name, followed by the company name (ie. @Robert_Company). This allows them to tweet on behalf of the company, but shows transparency, and also gives them a bit of leeway in what they post.

Hopefully this helps you! Definitely try to get a copy of this book.

Links:

• http://www.amazon.com/Twitter-Marketing-Hour-Hollis-Thomases/dp/0470562269
• http://www.twitip.com/when-one-twitter-account-is-not-enough/

posted June 14, 2010

I would offer up a couple suggestions:

First, consider employing an identifier on the company Twitter account that lets your followers know there are multiple people posting to the account. I've even seen some that identify them and use initials with an identifier (e.g. - ">jf") to single out who left the tweet. It's just an extra step to making the corporate account "human."

Second, use a business-level Twitter application like CoTweet or HootSuite that allows the entire team to not only login and Tweet from the same account (while also managing their personal Twitter handles) but includes internal workflow so each team member can help one another. If you see a Tweet your colleague is better qualified to answer, you can send them a note in CoTweet's workflow system to say, "Thought you'd be better suited to address this." This keeps more eyes on the account, helping it run smoothly.

I would still encourage each individual to maintain their own accounts and have their own areas of emphasis or interest they pursue, but have the team run the company account together. If done well, it can make the company account very fun and diverse in its activity.

Good luck.

Links:

• http://socialmediaexplorer.com

posted June 14, 2010

For me, the best bet often is individuals. While I follow some companies, I prefer to follow the individuals who make up that company for a simple reason. Specialization.

Using real estate as an example, if I'm interested in purchasing commercial real estate, I want to follow agents who deal in that. I would be less inclined to follow agents/brokers who only deal with residential or agricultural properties or some other area that does not involve my interests.

I often do follow companies of interest, but within that company, I also enjoy and benefit from following individuals whose specialty are also within my areas of interest.

Links:

• http://www.nashvillecopy.com
• http://claymorgan.typepad.com/mediaandmore/

posted June 14, 2010

I think that you can do both. For instance my firm BCAD Group has our Twitter page labeled as @bcadgroup but we post a photo of both my creative director and myself who both post from our company.(In most cases it is me doing the posting) Many people as they build relationships with you - get to know who you are as an individual representing your company.

I believe that photos of who is tweeting is important - rather than a company logo if you are tweeting under the name of your business. It allows for that transparency for people to visually see who it is that is actually doing the posting.

I think the content you share is also a good barometer of best practice. If you are posting on behalf of your business your tweets should be clear in the kind of posts you share as it related to topics of your business. If it is a personal site then of course that content will differ. I should note that it is nice to share some personal aspects of who you are - even if you are tweeting as part of or as representative of your business as we are humans first and engagement and relationship building include showing who we are as individuals.

Links:

• http://www.bcadgroup.com

posted June 14, 2010

Use HootSuite or share the login information among them so they all use the corporate account.

posted June 14, 2010

I really think it depends on whether each of those 10 people can offer something distinctly different?

Maybe you could have a person for each business area, or two people for each business area?

You could then make a list for people to read to with all those 10 people in and make a general company twitter for non-specific info and/or highlights from each of the individuals blogs.

It all depends on how many very different services/products that your organisation offers and if there is value in having separate accounts for each :)

posted June 14, 2010