“You are what you tweet!”
– Germany Kent, Named within Onalytica’s Top 100 Social Media Influencers of 2015
Things have not been looking too optimistic for Twitter as of late. Earlier this year, the company’s stock plunged a full 16 points after mixed quarterly results. Before that, in late 2015, Instagram’s monthly active users surpassed that of Twitter’s, dropping its ranking to the third largest social network. Fourth if you count YouTube. Despite the challenges, however, Twitter remains one of the most important social networks in existence with more than 320 million monthly active users.
Brands leverage Twitter’s 140-character limit every day to promote products, communicate messages, and interact with their followers. And some brands know how to analyze their social postings to drive positive results for their business.
Check out how these brands are taking their tweets to a new level and gaining positive opinions and results, and learn their secrets so you can do the same.
Amazon Analyzes Prime Day
Amazon’s 2015 Prime Day sale marked historic new heights for the company as it broke global sales records. Despite the financial success, however, consumers bashed the e-retailer all over Twitter and other social media platforms for promoting less than desirable products and continually running out of stock on more popular items. The sentiment for the company’s sale was far more negative than positive and even spawned the hashtag #primedayfail.
Amidst the complaints, Wal-Mart managed to steal a portion of Amazon’s day as 12.1 percent of Prime Day tweets mentioned the global superstore.
Amazon took the criticism as an opportunity and rose to the occasion in 2016. Through analyzing what went wrong, the company managed to generate 2.5 times more buzz in the following year and transformed a 42 percent positive sentiment in 2015 into 85 percent in 2016.
Amazon’s ability to sway the tides came from a deep dive into data analysis. By listening to what consumers were saying in their tweets, the company knew what to improve upon for the next annual Prime Day, and succeeded.
It is important to listen in on the conversations happening about your brand on social media. We often shy away or choose get defensive about negative comments, but they are by far the most revealing and valuable should you choose to take action. Tools like Mention and Keyhole can help you closely monitor how folks feel about your brand so that you can always make sure you are looking good in the public eye.
Starbucks Caters to Consumers
Starbucks is still the biggest name in coffee, and its Twitter account supports that as the company touts more than 11 million followers.
Starbucks is one of the brands on Twitter that really understands how to use social media as a marketing tool and keep consumers engaged. The company is constantly retweeting its followers, showing off their iced coffee purchases and whipped non-fat mocha something-or-others. Additionally, Starbucks is aces at mixing things up (no pun intended) with various forms of media to keep the masses entertained. The coffee company not only posts text-based tweets, but often shares images, GIFs, videos, and other types of captivating content.
Additionally, if you scroll through the Starbucks Twitter feed, you will notice that nearly every one of the brand’s tweets contains a hashtag – but not too many – which helps to extend the message’s reach.
Starbucks is killing the Twitter game for several reasons: The company keeps things entertaining with different kinds of media and is constantly adding relevant hashtags to its messages. More importantly, however, it is engaging its following in a big way by highlighting its customers. This is something that will help your fans fall in love with your brand all over again.
Sony Spans Networks
Sony is another organization that owns on Twitter. Not only does the company follow many of the same rules as Starbucks, but it is constantly using its account to retweet “sister” organizations like PlayStation and Sony Pictures. This is a fantastic and easy way for the company to extend its tweets to new audiences that may not already follow the other accounts.
As a small business owner, you probably don’t have sister companies who can retweet your postings. That’s OK, because you surely (or at least should) have other social media accounts other than Twitter. Cross-promoting across platforms can help your message reach far more eyeballs than posting to Twitter alone. Platforms like Buffer and SumAll can help you transcend those social boarders without wasting excessive time doing it.
Sonic’s Self-Deprecating Sense of Humor
While the company’s above take a more traditional approach to promoting through Twitter, there is an entirely different route you can take too; by making people laugh at your brand.
Social media has reached a point where many people do not want to follow or interact with the majority of brands. This creates an environment where creativity is needed to grab the attention of a given audience. A perfect example of this is the classic video game, Sonic the Hedgehog.
Sonic’s Twitter page is constantly poking fun at itself in the best way possible. The account has become so infamous for its sense of humor that entire blog posts have been dedicated to relaying just how endearing it really is.
It’s OK to not take yourself too seriously as a brand and crack jokes at your own expense. People may just love you for it, as long as it’s genuine and in a consistent voice. The less you appear like a brand, the more likely people are to interact with you.
Twitter may be going through a rough patch, but it is still vital to understanding consumer sentiment about your brand. The social network is one of the most prominent on the planet and can help drive serious results for your company plus build positivity around your brand. That’s a golden opportunity if you approach it with a solid strategy.
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