How to be a ghost tweeter: Five tips for working on social media for a brand
Hello, I’m David Levin. I’m co-founder of That Lot and I tweet for a living. I tweet for brands, TV shows and a pub. Some call this “ghost tweeting”, which is handy cos The Drum wanted a social media article that somehow related to Halloween. So in perhaps the most tenuous Halloween article of all time, here are my top tips to ghost tweeting (come on, let’s go with it)…
1: Carve a character (like you’d carve a pumpkin)
When you’re tweeting as a brand, TV show or anything other than yourself, it’s important to have a voice or character in mind. When I tweet as @the_dolphin_pub, for example, I’m a 1990s R&B-loving drunk, sweary idiot. The more you can humanise your tweets, the better you’ll be as a ghost. So basically, be a human ghost.
FUUUUUCK! Does drawing a little knob in the UKIP box count as an actual vote? I didn't think this through. #europeanelections
— The Dolphin (@The_Dolphin_Pub) May 22, 2014
2: Always tweet as the right ghost
If, like me, you have a number of accounts on your phone, Tweetdeck etc – always double-check that you’re about to tweet as the right one. Tweeting a drunk naked selfie from the account you run for, say, Barclays, will probably lead to you being given your ghostly marching orders. The only time I’ve tweeted from the wrong account is when I tweeted the below from The Dolphin. The other way round would’ve been the stuff of nightmares.
Okay, nobody panic but one of @jessiej's shoes has just fallen off. Please respect her foot's privacy during this difficult time. — BBC The Voice UK (@BBCTheVoiceUK) February 21, 2013
3: Ride the wave of topicality (like you’d ride a broomstick) Dipping your toe into topical events can be a good way to lure more (bloody) eyeballs to your account. As a brand, it’s about entering a conversation that lots of people are having and putting your own spin on it. We recently took over the Have I Got News For You account (@haveigotnews) account, which is entirely topical. Here’s a tweet that one of our team did during the Lord Freud fiasco…
Lord Freud says something out loud that probably should have stayed in his head. If only there were a name for this kind of slip. — HaveIGotNewsForYou (@haveigotnews) October 15, 2014
4: Be full of tricks and treats
Part of being a good ghost tweeter is writing good tweets obviously, but there’s a lot more you can do in 140 characters. Doing something a bit different will help you cut through the noise (yes, like a pumpkin). One of our team, Katya, does drawings in 140 characters. This is one she did when we took over Virgin Media’s @VMLoves account for The Commonwealth Games… .
(:: _( _ .-/ ̄ ︵' _-/〜´`¯¸.-¯´ / #Bolt — Virgin Media Loves (@VMLoves) August 2, 2014
5: Repeat your awesome mwahahashtags
Unlike a gruesome zombie, Twitter moves at an alarming pace. But despite its transience, it’s good to keep people coming back to your account for certain things. On Guardian Soulmates (@guardian_SM), we do #datingtips every day
So the date went well and you’ve gone back to yours for coffee. Four words. Put. The. Guitar. Down. #datingtips — Guardian Soulmates (@guardian_SM) May 21, 2014
When I was tweeting as Rufus The Hawk during Wimbledon, it was mainly about hawk-related hashtags…
I just nodded at Federer. He didn't nod back. He's changed. #hawkward — Rufus The Hawk (@RufusTheHawk) July 6, 2014
And I do quite a lot of Twitter quizzes (this one trended)…
4: 96% of gay people realise they are gay by the time they are 30. But what is Tom Cruise’s biggest grossing movie? #dolphinquiz — The Dolphin (@The_Dolphin_Pub) October 12, 2012
And so concludes my ghostly tips.
Fangs for reading (okay, I’ll stop now).
David Levin, co-founder of That Lot, tweets for himself at @davidlevin123