Twitter for brands
Twitter is a key social hub for consumers, second to the ubiquitous Facebook. Twitter provides a way to have manageable conversations en-mass with consumers and should be given a clear role as part of a digital strategy.
Brands like the Tate, ASOS, Topshop and Compare the Market have successfully managed to integrate Twitter into their social media strategy with a combined following of many hundreds of thousands, with many re tweets to millions of users and energised and engaged ‘fans’.
These brands have been successful for a number of reasons:
- They have developed a clear, friendly, branded tone of voice
- They actually talk back to consumers and have 2-way dialogue, even promoting followers who say nice things about them
- They tweet interesting and exclusive content, Q&A sessions with the curator of the Tate being one great case in point. Like Facebook, pushing generic, repetitive content about products and offers won’t cut it.
Of course not all brands need to be on Twitter, you first need to question if there is a significant enough portion of your audience to justify it. Twitter tends to be used by adults in their 20’s and 30’s. Secondly, whether you can generate the necessary levels of content to keep an audience engaged and re-tweeting.
While not all brands should be on Twitter, most should monitor it. Twitter provides insight into exactly what consumers feel about brands at a particular moment.
There are other areas which should take priority over Twitter, but if you are at a stage in your digital marketing where social media is becoming more central then it should certainly be seriously considered as a more than useful channel.
And in doing so don’t just talk to agencies. Take a look at content flow in the business and take a look at the number of advocate. You’ll need them in the business. Not outside it.
—Andrew
