01 Nov Executive Spotlight: Tracy Alloway
“I like forensic accounting, financial crisis hindsight, and kittens.” What Tracy Alloway has in her bio on her Twitter page is helpfully indicative of the type of content her followers can expect from her: a healthy blend of financial insights and humor. Formerly the US financial correspondent for the Financial Times, Tracy now works as Executive Editor for Bloomberg Markets. As the face of one of the largest financial magazines in the United States, Tracy positions herself as a thought leader within the financial news industry in order to promote both herself—and, by extension, Bloomberg as a whole—as a reliable provider of the most recent information and original insights. To this end, Tracy takes full advantage of Twitter’s fast-paced and discussion-focused nature, using it as her primary platform for leading the online conversation.
Let’s shift the Executive Spotlight onto how Tracy effectively uses Twitter to accomplish this goal.
Bells and Whistles
Tracy is clearly no rookie when it comes to Twitter, and she utilizes many of the most important features offered. Her bio, quoted above, infuses personality with her pertinent professional information, such as her job titles, former job title, and her website. Rather than pinning her personal favorite tweet to her profile, she correctly uses the Pinned Tweet feature to disclose important, recent information that her page visitors will find relevant. Currently, it is a tweet announcing her new job that links to her own website.
After two amazing years, I’m leaving Abu Dhabi. I’ll be taking up a new role with Bloomberg in Hong Kong as head of the Asia News Desk.https://t.co/5xwbAcsOQY
— Tracy Alloway (@tracyalloway) August 30, 2018
She even uses Twitter Lists, curated groups of Twitter accounts, to keep tabs on influencers across different categories and to make it easier for her followers to find her colleagues. For example, she created the list “Cross-Asset Team” so that followers can easily find the Twitter accounts of Bloomberg’s cross-asset reporters and editors. She is also subscribed to lists such as “Best in Energy,” a collection of accounts belonging to the top energy analysts on Twitter.
Tracy also retweets other tweets, uses the “polls” feature, and replies to tweets to create an open line of communication with her followers. By using all these features and, better yet, using them correctly, Tracy makes her profile stand out from the crowd and proves to her followers that she knows exactly what she is doing.
Approachability
The financial industry does not have a reputation for being particularly accessible or fun. Right off the bat, Tracy’s ability to garner engagements and new followers is hindered, in some ways, by her own profession. However, a clear goal of Tracy’s Twitter presence is to humanize herself, her company, and even the industry as a whole. To that end, many of her posts infuse humor alongside valuable information or her opinion.
I really think this gets to the crux of the matter. If you’re betting on cryptocurrency, you’re betting that *your* personal preference of cryptocurrency is going to be the one that everyone else wants too.
P.S. I prefer Diet Coke.
Via @Nouriel https://t.co/CePPE6BXpJ pic.twitter.com/9c4TATJ7Yh
— Tracy Alloway (@tracyalloway) October 11, 2018
Puns, memes, GIFs, and otherwise witty comments are all tools in her arsenal that encourage engagement from a wider, likely younger, audience. However, more importantly, she knows when to use these tools effectively—she has an appropriate balance of more serious tweets in her feed as well. Humor has a time and place, but if it is used too frequently, it begins to threaten the credibility of the leader.
Content is King
When she’s not posting the occasional meme, what else does Tracy Alloway share on her feed? For the most part, she shares the most up-to-date financial news paired with summaries or, when applicable, her unique perspective or opinion. As the executive editor of Bloomberg Markets, this is exactly what her followers expect from her, and she delivers. Many of the articles and graphs Tracy shares come from, of course, Bloomberg, but she also includes insights from other reputable sources if they are particularly relevant. She also occasionally shares details about her professional life, such as photos from the latest conference she attended. Perhaps most important to establishing Tracy as a thought leader is the owned or first-party content she shares. She promotes her show, TV appearances and podcasts that she is featured in, and her own articles. This thoughtful use of content helps to position Tracy as an intelligent, personable leader who is on top of the details and knows how to gracefully express her own opinions.
Room for Improvement
While Tracy Alloway’s tactics for garnering engagement are effective, we at Influential Executive know that there is always room for improvement when it comes to a leader’s online presence. At times, Tracy’s tweets seem to sacrifice proper copy editing for the sake of speed. Occasionally, she may miss a period, or otherwise make a small typo. Although these may seem like minuscule oversights, proper grammar is crucial for establishing credibility, and even more so for the Executive Editor of a large financial magazine. Just one or two small mistakes could undermine her authority in the eyes of some of her less understanding followers.
Overall, Tracy’s Twitter is an excellent mix of professional and fun. Thanks to her knowledge and intelligent use of the tools at her disposal, Tracy’s engagement rates and audience size exceed those of much more prominent individuals. Now that’s what we call an Influential Executive…Editor.