By Justin Delos Reyes – Web Success Team

Who do you want to be the voice of your Twitter account? Do you want to speak with one voice as a corporate account? Or do you prefer individual employees to represent your company?

These are questions every marketing manager must consider prior to registering his or her company on Twitter. Each option has its benefits and drawbacks from a strategic standpoint. Today we’ll discuss both corporate Twitter accounts and individual Twitter accounts to help you in the decision making process.

Corporate Twitter Accounts: Speaking to the Brand
A corporate Twitter account is one that uses your company’s name as its handle and uses your company branding as its profile. Corporate Twitter accounts offer a great opportunity for users to familiarize themselves with your company in ways similar to advertising. If one of your goals is to embed your company’s news, updates or customer relations information into the minds of your followers, managing a corporate Twitter account will give you the chance to do that.

One of the major benefits of Tweeting from a corporate account is that you engage from a professional point of view. Every tweet you send, every mention your brand receives, and every direct message you relay, is all geared to positioning your company. You have an opportunity to get your company’s message out to your followers.

This brings me to my next point: there is little room for subjectivity with corporate accounts. Your tweets are a direct reflection of your company, and your company will have to stand behind what it publishes. It is always good to have a solid online reputation management program that will address all negative press issues. However, if you have a team tweeting for your brand, they can sign their tweets to assume responsibility for what they say. Samsung does this with their customer service account (@SamsungService) to inform users who is behind Samsung’s tweets.

Individual Twitter Accounts: Human Interaction at Its Best
The best part about Twitter is it’s a platform for people to talk to other people. By allowing a group of employees to manage individual accounts (as representatives of your company), it humanizes your brand. Employees can better showcase their personalities, and users get a better feel for who they’re talking to. Additionally, individual accounts give followers insight about the people working behind the logo, which encourages users / employees to be advocates for your brand and builds loyalty.

Conversely, individual accounts can potentially cause problems for your company’s PR department. It’s more difficult to prevent unwanted tweets from being published, and those that do can really cause a stir. This happens frequently in professional sports, for instance, where players tweet their displeasure about owners or officiating and the team’s PR department has to clean things up. One way to avoid confusion is to prescreen employees tweets before they are published. Designate a “control” manager this task.

Can Corporate and Individual Twitter Accounts Co-Exist?
Your social media goals for Twitter will determine if you engage with followers through a corporate account or individual account. The pros and cons of one approach don’t outweigh the other by much – so it all comes down to how you want your brand to be represented and what your soon-to-be followers prefer.

You may find that the best approach is to use a combination of the two. In this case, an online marketing agency can help you manage your time better by handling the corporate account while employees lend their expertise through individual accounts. Again, it all comes down to what your Twitter goals are and what you want to get out of the platform.

A Tweet for Your Thoughts!
Is your company using a corporate or individual Twitter account to engage with followers? What are some of the pros and cons you’ve experienced?