This is a translation of a hilarious, but true blogpost, that made the rounds in the German scene recently. http://www.trendopfer.de/wahrheit/2009/08/wenn-unternehmen-twittern/
Subject: Tweet #1
Friday, 10:01 AM
Dear F. In response to our meeting on monday of last week, I’m sending you our first tweet. Could you please publish it? We stuck to the 140 character limit. Should you have further questions feel free to get back to me.
Best regards, H.
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Re: Tweet #1
Friday, 10:15 AM
Hi H. Thanks for your email. It seems you have forgotten the Tweet?!
Cheers
F.
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Re Re: Tweet #1
Friday, 10:17 AM
Dear F. Sorry. I’ve attached the word document to this email.
Best regards, H.
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FW Re Re: Tweet#1
Friday, 10:30 AM
Hello K. Department X wants to twitter. Can you take a look at this? I’ll forward to to M. for approval afterwards.
Lunch?
Later F.
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Re: FW Re Re: Tweet#1
Friday, 11:30 AM
Hi F. the tweet is ok, IMHO
Lunch sounds good. 1 o’clock downstairs!
Cheers K.
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FW: Re: FW: Re: Re: Tweet#1
Friday, 12:30 PM
Hello H. I’ve checked back with our corporate spokesperson and there are no objections from their side. I’m going to send it to M. for approval. The tweet should be online by EOB today.
Cheers F.
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Twitter Department X Approval, Tweet #1
Friday, 12:45 PM
Dear Mr. M.
In conjunction with the new social media strategy of our organization and as a direct result of our workshop in may, department X has created a twitter-account for them. They want to start twittering immediately. I have attached their first tweet (please refer to the attached word document) for your approval. Mr. K from corporate communication has no objections.
Yours sincerely F.
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Re: FW: Re: FW: Re: Re: Tweet#1
Friday, 2:30 PM
Dear F. Any feedback from management?
Cheers H.
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Re: Re: FW: Re: FW: Re: Re: Tweet#1
Friday, 2:55 PM
Hello H, They’ve been in a meeting since lunch. Seems it’s going to take some more time.
Greets F.
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Re: Re: Re: FW: Re: FW: Re: Re: Tweet#1
Friday, 2:58 PM
Dear F., ok, its a few more hours until EOB.
L8r H.
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Re: Re: Re: Re: FW: Re: FW: Re: Re: Tweet#1
Friday, 6:05 PM
Dear F. have you heard anything from M. I need wrap up for today…
Cheers H.
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Re: Twitter Department X Approval, Tweet #1
Friday, 6:45 PM
Who or what is this Twitter?
M.
This message is confidential and may be privileged. If you are not the intended recipient, we kindly ask you to please inform the sender. Any unauthorised dissemination or copying hereof is prohibited. This message serves for information purposes only and shall not have any legally binding effect. Given that e-mails can easily be subject to manipulation, we can not accept any liability for the content provided.
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Re: Re: Twitter Department X Approval, Tweet #1
Friday, 6:47 PM
Dear Mr M.,
twitter is a so called microblogging service for the fast exchange of information. We decided during our workshop in may to use this service as an additional communications channel. Department X is the first user.
I am wishing you a wonderful weekend.
Best regards F.
Sent from my iPhone.
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Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: FW: Re: FW: Re: Re: Tweet#1
Friday, 7:00 PM
Dear F. I am leaving the office now. I can check my email from home, tho’ 
Enjoy your weekend
Cheers H.
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Re: Re: Re: Twitter Department X Approval, Tweet #1
Monday 07:15 AM
Approved. You’ll have to explain this twitter thing to me again sometime
M.
This message is confidential and may be privileged. If you are not the intended recipient, we kindly ask you to please inform the sender. Any unauthorised dissemination or copying hereof is prohibited. This message serves for information purposes only and shall not have any legally binding effect. Given that e-mails can easily be subject to manipulation, we can not accept any liability for the content provided.
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Re:Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: FW: Re: FW: Re: Re: Tweet#1
Monday, 10:05 AM
Hello H. , the tweet is now approved. You had some spelling mistakes in there (Upper/lowercase) which I corrected for you. The corrected version is attached.
Best F.
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Re: Re:Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: FW: Re: FW: Re: Re: Tweet#1
Monday, 12:30 PM
Hello F., sorry, I was in a meeting. Thanks for the approval. The spelling mistake is not a mistake. We chose to write everything lowercase. Our intern said this is common on the internet.
Best H.
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Re: Re: Re:Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: FW: Re: FW: Re: Re: Tweet#1
Monday 1:00 PM
CC: K., M.
Hello H., I am not interested in what’s “common” or not on the internet. When your department is publishing messages on twitter you are doing this in the name of our company. This includes correct spelling. Please stick to the version approved by Mr. M and K. (see email from Monday 10:05). In addition it would be helpful if you could create a communication plan for the tweets planned for the next 2 weeks. With that we have better visibility into this.
Best wishes F.
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Re:Re: Re: Re:Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: FW: Re: FW: Re: Re: Tweet#1
Monday 1:40 PM
CC: K, M., P., D., L.
Hello F., N. will work with our new intern on a few slides (powerpoint) to explain our communication strategy for twitter. I’ll schedule a meeting for the end of next week. I think it would make sense if the decision makers from all involved departments would attend as well. We’ll publish an excel sheet of the tweets for the next two weeks on the intranet. Hopefully that will speed up the approval process..
Best regards H.
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Re:Re:Re: Re: Re:Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: FW: Re: FW: Re: Re: Tweet#1
Monday 1:49 PM
CC: K, M., P., L.
Hello H. what’s this about?
Cheers D.
….
tweet#1
Monday 2:56 PM
CC: _department_x_all_employees
Dear colleagues
Our first tweet just got published. Sorry, but the approval took a little bit longer than expected. I’ve attached a screenshot for you.
Thanks to everyone working on this
Best regards,
F.
(TGIF. Have a good time, everyone)