6 Awesome Twitter Strategies to Learn From.

Twitter can sometimes create a dilemma for brands. It’s a medium that focuses on people, so how should brand accounts work? Should you let your users know who is the voice behind your brand? Should key employees represent your brand instead of a brand account? There’s not a one-size-fits-all answer to this question, but you can learn from how these companies are handling it.

1. People Like a Person, Not Just a Logo — @Ford

Scott Monty is head of social media for Ford Motor Company and, for many, the face and personality of Ford on Twitter. His account, @ScottMonty, has more followers and a higher Klout Score than the @Ford official account. Immediately upon talking to Monty, you realize why he’s had such success in his role: He’s not only personable but very much believes in the company. He says: “One of the reasons that it works so well is that I don’t do it simply because it’s a job. I truly believe in the things Ford Motor Company is doing — from the products to the great leadership. The reason I took the job is that it was something that resonated with me personally. I think you can tell when people are doing something just because it’s a job or because they truly believe in it.”

Monty points out that one of the biggest challenges to this approach is finding a representative that will be the right fit. As for the benefits, Monty adds: “People appreciate looking at a face as an avatar instead of a logo. That personal touch brings along a degree of humanity to the brand. I talk about 360 degrees of my life and people like that.”

Best for: Companies that have a strong social media lead who is committed to the company and who fits well with the brand image

The Twitter handle for Zappos support has a rather unusual, but practical approach to having multiple people run its account: They simply tweet when they change shifts (which happens fairly often) and let people know who’s helping at any given time. It’s a very brick-and-mortar approach similar to how you can check the name tag of who’s helping you at the store, but you still view them as a company representative.

“We want Twitter to be more personalized,” says Corina Craig, one of Zappos’s tweeters. “We want people doing Twitter who like to do it. A lot of our customers have their favorite tweeters. People reach out and say, ‘Hey Corina — how’s everything going?’ ” This method was chosen to promote the best customer experience. You can get 24/7 service from Zappos and you can still correspond with someone who has a name and personality.

Best for: Companies that need to provide service 24/7.

3. Carefully Craft the Brand Voice — @VirginAmerica

Virgin America does a remarkable job of being responsive on Twitter despite the fact that there are only two people behind the handle. Jill Fletcher is the social media and communications manager and one of those two people. She explains that they work very hard to develop a consistent company voice for the account that fits with the overall brand.

“The ‘Virgin Voice’ is casual, cheeky and irreverent, and so are we,” she says. “Nick [her colleague] and I work very closely together to inject as much of the ‘Virgin Voice’ into our tweets as possible, but we aren’t afraid to let our personalities shine through either. I think it’s a mistake to over-think every message that goes out on social media. Our aim is to simply be true to Virgin’s values in our social media posts by going out of our way to create ‘wow’ for our guests and having fun along the way.”

Best for: A brand with a strong voice. Read more at mashable.com