How much brand equity do you place in twitter?

The world has seemingly erupted in twitter hysteria over the last few months – resulting in parody on the Daily Show and widespread coverage in the mainstream media (also my favourite headline ever), everyone is talking about the little blue bird and its friendly fail whale. Reactions range from bemusement to ridicule and scaremongering, and very few in the mainstream media really get what it’s for or why people use it.

This style of coverage in itself is nothing new, as traditional media outlets catch up with early adopters and adjust themselves to the new world. It is a pattern that has repeated itself as the net has become an increasingly social hub and reflection (to the horror of some) of society itself – from Friends Reunited through to Facebook.

Increasingly, businesses have had their appetites whetted by both the potential reach of these networks, the inherent traceability of the conversations, and the opportunities of building brand evangelists through presenting a human face of largely faceless corporations. Twitter has been no exception in this trend, and many companies have set up social profiles to converse with their customers outside of their own constricted business premises (online or offline).

However, as more and more companies build up and invest in profiles in social media arenas, are they sacrificing some of the authority they should be collecting out to third party websites that have little or no long term value? Will a Facebook page created by Fox News (PR5) or a Youtube page created by the BBC (PR 7) hold any value for the organizations that created them in 2-5 years? Is it even important? Aaron Wall touched upon this recently and mentioned he was:

…going to cut back on social media for the next year or two…its not worth the effort. It builds no real value. It wastes opportunity. It wastes links.

I’m inclined to agree on some level, and there is a gaping black hole emerging. It is undeniable there is value in connecting with customers on a personal basis; however by doing so through channels such as twitter, Facebook, Youtube et al, are brands exposing themselves to unnecessary risk, and supporting others’ business models at the cost of building on their own? Equally, bands have done the same over the last few years by promoting their web presence on MySpace pages – I could be wrong, but since it was taken over by Rupert Murdoch’s NewsCorp, that practice seems to have declined somewhat.

These days hosting a corporate blog on Blogspot or another free third party blogging platform is seen as amateurish, yet both companies and internet marketing professionals are happy to place a lot of unique, valuable content, and more importantly brand equity in third party social websites including twitter. Perhaps as with blogging (and Wordpress), an open source solution will emerge that addresses this issue; or maybe a more practical solution would be for twitter to offer premium accounts that allow 301 redirects, full profile customisation, etc etc.

Don’t get me wrong: twitter is a great platform with a huge amount of potential that has yet to be fully explored, however we must consider the long term implications of what we’re building in a brand (both personally and otherwise), and the control we retain over it.

I for one can be followed via a 302 redirect at http://rob-hammond.co.uk/twitter/