Twitter is so many different things to different people.

For sole traders like me, it’s a chance to muddle up our brands and our personalities even further. For multinationals, it’s another playground where they can deploy colossal marketing spend to bolster their already formidable advantage.

And for some of those in between, it’s all a bit perplexing. What is this exactly? Why are we doing it? And who are we talking to? But peer pressure is a powerful thing, so they gamely get with the programme and Twitter up. I just wonder what they’re really thinking…

What they say	What they really think
We’re here to share knowledge, deepen relationships and encourage conversation	We’re doing this because a 20-year-old from our agency told us we had to
The Old Spice campaign had so much to teach traditional marketers about reaching discerning, content-hungry consumers through new channels	I hate Old Spice, I hate clever-clever marketing and I don’t believe they sold a single roll-on with that campaign. That towel bloke was fit though
Help us to help you. We can’t wait to hear your feedback on how we could improve	I’m not changing our product just because some lamer with an iPad won’t read the manual
We see microblogging as a key channel in our online marketing mix	I paid for a site. I paid for ecommerce. I paid for SEO, PPC and a blog. And now this
We seek active, two-way dialogue and engagement with our customer base	When do we start selling our stuff?
It’s not just about follower count. We focus on high-value relationships	TV adverts get 700 million views*. We’ve got an intern chatting to 35 locals about the weather *Source: Thinkbox
We measure our ROI on social media in goodwill, brand recognition and profile	We measure our ROI in cash money, and right now this isn’t troubling the scorer
We see our followers as a living, growing community and a vibrant manifestation of the positive equity in our brand	We see our followers as an asset to be developed and exploited. Is there some way we can sell them?
Follow us for news, updates and perhaps a little bit of fun!	I can’t believe we’re paying someone to write this stuff when they could be working
Connect with us on Facebook!	Please don’t say we’ve got to do that too…

Tags: Digital and social, Old Spice, PPC, SEO, Twitter