Should every brand appoint a ‘Twitter Jockey’ like MTV?
If you’re a brand about to launch a Twitter account, one of the first issues you face is what does it look like and who is going to run it? Do you go for the anonymous brand approach, which isn’t as good as having a real person, or appoint one of your employees to front it? If you choose the latter route, who do you appoint and what happens when they leave in 2 years time?
Well some brightspark at MTV has come up with the solution to all these conundrums, with a big wad of publicity attached too. They ran a nationwide campaign to find an MTV ‘Twitter Jockey’ – a representative of the station who will serve as their brand ambassador on Twitter for as long as the DJ style contract lasts.
The winner, trailing a load of publicity in her wake, is Gabi Gregg AKA @MTVTj. The 23 year old fought off other contestants in a apprentice style competition which included organising a ‘Tweet-Up’.
While not every brand will have the $100,000 prize budget to attract a ‘Twitter Jockey’ in such a high profile way – the principal could be applied across any organisation prepared to invest in the channel.
I think the role of ‘Twitter Jockey’ is a great idea. It has an air of excitement and entertainment about it. It suggests that the personality and spontaneity of the twitter jockey will come across as well as the brand tone of voice. As the role is transient, change is expected, so should twitter audience numbers fade, a new jockey can be introduced to inject some freshness and hopefully lift audience figures. MTV is the perfect brand to try out this role, though I think it could work effectively for mnay brands.