A lesson from Exxon Mobil on Twitter

Following the brand jacking case of Exxon Mobil on Twitter, we have conducted a small research to see what's happening on Twitter for the 45 most important Dutch and Belgian listed companies. On one hand not a lot is happening by the companies themselves, but on the other hand there are some things to worry about from a communications point of view.

Out of the 45 companies researched, 2 companies are using Twitter in a way that can be linked to them. These are Tom Tom and Randstad.

27 out of 45 brand names have been registered as Twitter accounts, but 25 accounts have unclear ownership (examples: ING, AgfaGevaert, Heineken, KPN, Dexia).

18 out of the 45 brand names have not yet been registered on Twitter.

Should companies now jump on Twitter and get (back) ownership of their accounts? Well, it doesn't only depend on the question if they want to start using Twitter to communicate. As we have seen with Exxon Mobil, it can get quite confusing when someone else starts broadcasting Tweets using a company name. Followers might get the impression this is official communication from the company, when in fact it is not. Not even considering any reputational damage and potential influence on stock rates this might have by spreading rumours... After all, as we have seen in a previous post on this blog, social media (including Twitter) are gaining SEC acceptance as a way to communicate and make information public.

So if your company has not registered an account on Twitter yet, this is the time. Registration is easy and takes only a few minutes. Now is also a good time to start monitoring the conversation about your company on Twitter. Just search for your company name and subscribe to the corresponding RSS feed in your feed reader.

More info on Twitter for those unfamiliair with it.

Press release on the research: Dutch, French

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