Do Brands belong on Twitter? Probably not

- or at least not for advertising...but it won't stop them trying. It'll be embarrassing, like on Second Life, but they will still come, led on by Noo Meedja Agencies.

Marc Drapeau lays out the case against on Mashable:

Twitter is about people sharing information with other people. So how do one-dimensional organizational brands fit into this mix? When you really think about it, they don’t. As an analogy, when you call customer service, a human answers the phone (eventually) and tells you their name - and you’re not talking to “Sprint” or “Dell” but rather “Steve” or “Danny.”

So, does anyone really want to talk to @DunkinDonuts? Or would they rather talk to Bill Rosenberg, the founder of Dunkin Donuts of Canton, MA, or perhaps the local franchise owner on Capitol Hill, or a disgruntled but funny summer employee punching in at 4am? People connect with people, and so I think the latter.

The other issue is that its an Asymmetric network, just because a brand follows me doesn't mean I'll follow it back, and if I don't it can't direct mail me. I suppose it could follow and publicly signal with the @ command, but I suspect most people will just use some blocking tool then.

What does work on Twitter is for brands to be helpful - add value - monitor complaints, sort things out etc.

They could charge for a presence to monitor, may be a good early monetiser - but I don't think this is the major way for Twitter to make money - these ways are better. But I still think a Telco should buy them.