OK, OK. I’m well aware that a social-media column cannot focus on Twitter alone, but stick with me. Sure, this is the second month I’ve gone on a Twitter tangent. I promise, it will be worth it.

This month’s focus is a tip of the hat to businesses that use Twitter well in their marketing mix, and a wag of the finger to those whose Twitter pages… well, serve as a horrible warning of what not to do.

The Good

Brandswag.com, @kyleplacy

Kyle Lacy is an Indianapolis native, and CEO of a company called Brandswag. This guy had BETTER be good at Twitter marketing, since he literally wrote the book on the subject. Twitter Marketing for Dummies. (Yes, non-local types who may be reading this, I’m serious. Go Google it.) He shares without getting overly-personal, posts interesting news, and most importantly, never spams.

Full disclosure: He and I aren’t really friends offline; in fact we’ve never met. I haven’t read the book, and he isn’t paying me to say any of this. But only a fool wouldn’t recognize that he knows his stuff. Going by the table of contents, he covers everything from starting up an account, tweeting to find sales leads, tweeting to provide customer service, tweeting to inform about your product without being annoying, creating quality Twitter content, livetweeting events, effective use of keywords, using Twitter in crisis communications… OK. You get it. He gets a lot more anal-retentive and strategic than most of us would. But you don’t have to read the book and overthink things to get it right. Just watch and learn.

Zappos.com, @zappos

More disclosure: I’ve never met Tony Hsieh, but a friend of mine used to work for him.

I believe that the man is a freaking genius. He tweets with honesty and a refreshing amount of transparency into his business dealings. He treats his employees fantastically right down to the call-center service reps, and happy employees equal good marketing. The Zappos brand marketing strategy relies heavily on one of my favorite findings in marketing: If you get your audience to laugh, you’ve got ‘em reeled in.

My only complaint with the Zappos Twitter account is his utter lack of @ replies to anyone. Twitter is a community, based on two-way interaction. It’s not one-sided like radio or television, folks. Fortunately, this failing is mitigated by the way he actively encourages Zappos employees to run their own accounts, speak as freely as they wish without risk of a firing, and engage the daylights out of their community in conversation.

Still, though, this is not the most important thing. I would be remiss if I failed to mention that Twitter is only one chunk of any marketing strategy. I believe it is an essential part of said strategy in today’s world, but you’ve got to pair that up with great, great service. No amount of tweeting or ad-buys will make up for crappy service and for not truly caring about your customers. Express this however you wish. To Zappos, it means things like free shipping on returns, happy and friendly customer-service reps, and -in at least one famous story — the company sent flowers to a customer after learning that her mother had passed away. If you don’t have somewhere near this level of desire to get involved with your current and future customers, don’t even bother making that first tweet.

Scotty’s Brewhouse, @brewhouse

Scott Wise, owner of Scotty’s Brewhouse with locations in Indianapolis, Lafayette, and Bloomington, might actually be able to teach the aforementioned Kyle Lacy a thing or two about Twitter marketing. He mixes it up with amusing family and workplace anecdotes, conversation and joking with the locals, retweets and photos, contests, and restaurant special promos worded in a way that usually doesn’t come off as hokey or spammy. Like at Zappos, he encourages his employees to have a healthy relationship with Twitter. Most impressively, in the event of a disappointing Brewhouse experience, all you have to do is fire off a tweet to this guy. You’ll get no form-letter faux apology here. The one time I had to complain about subpar service, he sent two $5 gift cards and a personalized E-mail, and engaged in some employee training to correct the issues promptly.

Oh, and then there’s the part where he plays host to about a zillion Tweetups per year. I don’t think there’s any better free advertising than this.

The Bad

Atlas Van Lines, @atlas_van_lines

I hated to put Atlas on this list, because it’s clear that they’re really putting up an honest effort. Bad is probably the wrong word to describe their Twitter activities. There is just plenty of room for improvement.

The transportation company, headquartered in Evansville, Indiana, does a great job tweeting moving tips, interesting news, and some cool trivia now and then. They ask questions in their tweets too, offering an opportunity to reflect and respond. But after reviewing page after page of tweets, I saw not one @ reply or retweet. They ask questions, but don’t even so much as thank readers for responding, let alone start a dialog to let readers see the human side of their company? Twitter is a place for building community, not just for putting your message out there. In the twenty-first century, your growth will be limited if you don’t soften up the monolithic corporate image. The beginnings of consumer engagement are here, but Twitter has so much more to offer. I hope Atlas takes a cue, and starts doing more give-and-take in their Twitter activities.

Anthem Blue Cross & Blue Shield, @anthemhealth

Again, I really hated having to put this company on here. Not just because I happen to work here, but because they really could do something stellar if they invested the effort. It’s especially important, from a PR standpoint, for Anthem (a.k.a. WellPoint) to show a human face whenever possible. Recent developments in public perception has been a nightmare for this corporation.

David Finkel, Vice President of National Operations, does do a lot of interactive tweeting and responding to members. The whole purpose of the site, at present, seems to be seeking out mentions of Anthem, specifically complaints, and addressing these complaints. The most obvious limitation to this is federal HIPAA law. All he can really say without violating HIPAA is “I’m sorry you had this problem. Email us and we will sort out the issue.“

This is a really good start, but I have two complaints. One, this is a very reactive approach in a world that demands proactive efforts. I want to see more informing, engaging, and asking questions. Have a contest! Have a tweetchat. There are so many avenues available. Two, the page only gets updated a few times a month. That’s not even an acceptable pace for a blog, let alone for a platform that’s basically the bastard lovechild of blogging and texting. Things happen fast on Twitter.

I’ve had the pleasure of speaking with David at work. He’s a stand-up guy, and he’s doing some good things with Anthem’s Twitter pilot. I’m also interested to see what kind of creative interaction could eventually go on between @anthemhealth and the new healthcare-oriented social media site, Healthychat.com. There is a world of potential here, if it can just be released.

The issue I see is that Atlas and Anthem each have one-half of a good strategy going. What Atlas does, Anthem lacks, and vice versa. There’s plenty of potential. It’s just going to take effort. You know, just like with anything worth doing.

The Ugly

Oh my God, there are way too many to count.

Maybe it’s better to just make a little list of things to not do. Ever. Ever. Please, don’t ever. The best things you’ll do is annoy people and damage your brand.

• Don’t set up an auto-DM for when people follow you. Ew. Please, just don’t. It’s the Twitter equivalent of an unsolicited credit-card offer.
• Don’t blast an identical message to 100 or so people just because they happened to mention something related to your product. This may be the fastest way to get blocked by massive numbers of people. You aren’t fooling anyone. Paying attention to what people are truly saying and starting a conversation takes some effort. But spamming is lazy and stupid. It’s also a huge problem blighting the Twitter experience. So don’t add to the mess.
• Don’t just throw all the current trending topics into your tweet to get your spammy account into search results. In fact, if you are one of those annoying idiots who does this, you should just go play in traffic or something.
• Don’t yell ‘n sell. It’s annoying in car commercials; you bet it’s annoying on the Internet, too. Lay off the caps, for heaven’s sake!
• If you’re going to repeat-tweet your “New Blog Post!” or whatever, at least make it as un-annoying as possible. Keep it to four-hour intervals, at a minimum. Sure, many of us are following a huge pile of people, and we might be genuinely interested in what you have to say, not see your tweet the first time. But use some sense. We don’t want to see an entire Twitter page full of the same thing.
• Don’t post too many quotes. Now and then, a quote is fine. But if you don’t ever have anything original to say, what are you doing on the internet? Go come up with an insight that’s actually yours.
• Don’t retweet too much. Same reason as the quote issue. Yes, you want to compliment people. Retweeting says you think they’ve said something worth repeating. Flattery can get you a lot of places. But if more than one-quarter of your page is retweets, you may have a retweeting problem. There should probably be a twelve-step program for this.
• Don’t follow someone just to sell them crap. I mention Celexa and like, ten spammers hawking pharmaceuticals follow me. It’s fun to see that you have a new follower, but it really lets the air out of your sails once you discover it isn’t a real follower. Most of us on Twitter don’t care about your cheap Viagra, your porn site, or your multilevel marketing scheme. You’re just being lazy, and not bothering to market in a truly engaging way.

Remember, there is a certain level of strategy to using Twitter for marketing your product, service, or idea. But don’t overthink it, and don’t try to force your audience. Just let them know you’re interested in them and their lives. Appeal to the inherent narcissism that, let’s face it, most of us Twitter users have. Pace yourself, and above all, be interesting.

Leah Barr : Short in stature but big in heart, Leah geeks out on public radio, industrial music, sci-fi, and current events. Her day gig is in customer service. She is a part-time marketing diva with an enduring love for nerds, geeks, dorks, weirdos, and drop-dead awesome events. She's most likely to be seen wearing out her cell phone, outlining new projects on her laptop, playing dress-up, feeding her energy-drink addiction, or all the above at once.