Edited Headline: When Comedians Retweet

With all the good that comes from social media, sometimes you find things that are odd. Today was one of those days - a co-founder of a startup joked when he RTd something I said (note he changed the company names). Although I know of this guy's company, I had never spoken with him (or even heard of him) before.

The Tweets:

bret_clement: Talking to software company who is using @pardot today. They liked it over LoopFuse, Marketo, etc.

royrusso: RT @bret_clement Talking to software company who is using@loopfuse today. They liked it over Eloqua, Marketo, etc.

Quick Context

I work in tech PR. I started my own agency in April and have grown quickly (although I hired my first senior employee in August - I don't currently have capacity to take on any new clients).

As I work with my clients, and talk to people in the tech industry, the conversation often comes back to sales automation tools, CRM packages, etc. These tools provide so much opportunity for marketers and PR professionals who want to track their results (in terms of sales/dollars).

I am no expert in these tools. My former employer (but not me) worked with LoopFuse for awhile. After I started my own firm, I sat in on a LoopFuse demo (which was interesting and useful). Other clients use Pardot, MarketBright, Marketo and other tools and are happy with them.  I reached out to a few of these companies about potentially working with them because I was and remain so enthusiastic about what their products mean for marketing pros.

So when somebody today mentioned they had evaluated a few products and picked one I hadn't heard of,  I thought it was worth Tweeting. 

I didn't get Roy's joke at the time. To be honest, I lost my temper a bit at being misquoted like that.

But more important to me, this caused me to reflect a bit on my own use of Twitter. We all have our own reasons for using it. But I think WOMMA (Word of Mouth Marketing Association) is right with its code of ethics. For corporations and startups using Twitter - transparency and honesty are important.