10 Twitter strategies for Australian brands

With all the mentions of Twitter in mainstream media,  one could be turned off by the hype but  Twitter is one of the fastest growing social networks in Australia. Twitter is also very adaptable to long term strategies in social media marketing and there are some brands that use it well, and others who are virtually invisible.

I’ve identified 10 Twitter strategies now being used by Australian brands. I’ve divided them up arbitrarily into “Talking” and “Listening” and low interaction (one way) and higher engagement (two way interaction) and plotted some of the types (and the examples)  in a matrix diagram

One way interaction

• People who matter – get closer to the big influencers e.g. @KevinRuddPM
• Broadcast – encompasses the celebrities and the RSS News broadcasters @abcnews @Jessicaveronica
• Interactive news – a bit of feeds, a bit of interaction, my favourite type of news @mumbrella and @marie_claire_au can also be used well for recruitment like @s2mDigital
• Promos & competitions – useful for brand building and sampling like @hp_touchsmart
• Monitoring brand – this is more about monitoring what is being said about the brand on Twitter

Two way Interaction

• Advice & Tips – connecting people with communities like @qftravelinsider does with traveling
• Echo Chamber – everyone accuses Twitter of being an echo chamber, but worthy of watching the conversations that take place and see what is headed for meme status before it hits mainstream e.g, #chkchkboom
• Customer service – @BigPondTeam have been doing it for a while, other less formalised accounts too
• Shared Community Experience – Conferences & TV shows are in this space see @insightSBS @adtech plus follow any reality or panel show hashtag on Twitter during the show like #gruen or #masterchef
• Personalising brand – people doing this well are either small brands, musicians or the “hijackers” see @stephenconroy @snobscrilla and @Afficionados_HH Bigger brands are too scared to venture into this space, but ripe to jump in and personalise a brand without a face

The era of social commerce hasn’t even started yet, so best to get in and start engaging in conversations. It’s not for the impatient or the fainthearted, so think of it very much as a long term strategy, one that should ultimately fit into an overall digital and brand strategy.