THE PAST FEW DAYS I’VE BEEN CONTEMPLATING the way I communicate with other people. It used to be simple. I picked up my rotary telephone, dailed 7 to 10 digits and used my vast vocabulary to communicate. Now it is more and more difficult, and confusing. It isn’t just those of us who work in social media marketing or technology fields. In February of this year a movie came out where Drew Barrymore hits spot on what must be a universal frustration:

There is very little etiquette yet surrounding some of the new communication tools—things like DM’ing vital information on Twitter. I own a Blackberry and have yet to find a Twitter client that works for me. The result is that my Twitter participation is largely tied to my computer.

I tweet frequently from my BB, but often don’t see DM’s or responses to my tweets until I’m back at my computer. Truthfully, I haven’t spent much time looking. Between e-mail and text messages, I’m not that excited about adding my Twitter feed to my mobile. But that begs the question, if you are sending me a DM on Twitter about something really important, and I miss it, have I let you down and breached protocol or etiquette?

One reason this is top of mind is something that happened last week. I was responsible for getting speakers for an industry event. One of the speakers was running terribly late, in fact we weren’t sure she was going to show up at all. I tweeted her “we are looking for you”. Then I couldn’t get a good internet connection at the event. She DM’d  me back, but I didn’t have access to it because of the way I have chosen to establish that method of communication. Since I’m very engaged on Twitter, does that replace the formality of an e-mail I would have gotten on my phone to tell me you are late?

Things move so fast. It would be nice if someone slowed down and set some rules for everyone!

However, I suppose the same thing will happen that did years ago with e-mail. Remember when cc’ing a whole slew of people on an e-mail became very bad form? At first no one knew it was an issue, then over time people stood up and said, “wouldn’t it be nice for privacy issues to blind copy people instead?” That became some of the first waves of e-mail etiquette learning that happened as an evolution. Everyone knows someone who used TO TYPE THEIR E-MAIL MESSAGES IN ALL CAPS. Most likely they don’t do that anymore. Just like eventually, people will politely point out that if you are having a conversation with someone on Twitter that is between two people, after a couple of tweets you might want to consider moving it to DMing. Just a tip. Just a consideration.

Although I co-founded a social media marketing agency, I feel that I’m connected enough and don’t have to maximize every tool. In fact, I’m taking the advice we often give our customers- that not only do they need to find the tools that work for them and a strategy for using those tools, but that they also must determine what works best for them, what they can and will do to avoid burning out. Slow and steady wins the race. So I’ve chosen not to be connected to Twitter every second of the day. Gasp! I’m sure I’m disappointing someone, but in reality, it works and at the end of the day that is the most important thing.

But it does beg a lot of questions about the best way to reach me and how quickly I will respond. Does e-mail still feel like the most official form of communicating important information to you? What are everyone’s responsibilities for checking each and every portal? Are the tides changing, and it is just as official to communicate details, albeit short ones, via Twitter?  What about sending vital information via SMS text?

I’m interested to hear your thoughts about this fascinating evolution.

WE TRY TO ASK OURSELVES the same rigorous questions we ask clients about their marketing efforts. We teach that tools must fit into the strategy—not vice versa. And, not every company needs every tool.

After founding Lava7 and setting up shop, we turned to our own marketing plan. One topic we struggled with was “How does Twitter fit into our strategy?” Each of the four Lava7 partners is active on Twitter, having spent time building their communities, finding relevant followers and actively posting. So, we weren’t sure how a corporate Twitter account would contribute to our goals. Should we take turns tweeting from the corporate account? Do corporate accounts feel impersonal? Would we confuse our faithful followers about how to reach us? Rich Brooks recently talked a little bit about this topic. Olivia Hayes has also talked about this before.

As we continued to look closely, we realized that we were already doing a pretty good job accomplishing our Twitter goals through individual accounts. We try to drive visibility, post thoughtful content in each of our areas of expertise, and reach out to thought leaders.

So we decided to put the @Lava7 account on ice (for now).

We’ll likely hear from naysayers who question why we don’t tweet from a corporate account. @Lava7 currently has a link that directs people to this post. We’d love to have you to follow our founding partners:  @jack_hadley, @mlkeone, @blakehadley and @lavarob (formerly @robjensendesign).

Another thing we encourage clients to do regularly is review their strategy. If one day our strategy changes, we’ll still have the tool in place. Reserving the right to change one’s mind is always a good idea.

How did you, or your company, decide what your Twitter strategy should be? We’d love to hear from you and get your feedback.

(photo courtesy: Paul Hadley)