Does Twitter still have a place in your brand's social media mix?

It's a question we get asked a lot…

Does Twitter still have a place in your brand's social media marketing mix?

Over the past four years, Twitter has struggled to define its place amongst other social media platforms, especially in Australia. Facebook's data capabilities have made it a far more lucrative investment for brands, often leaving Twitter in its dust.

But does that mean you shouldn't be tweeting or is there a better way to go about it? We sat down to ask one of our social media geniuses, Jack Alexander, to learn about how brands can engage on Twitter and drive value.

Q. Jack, should Aussie brands do Twitter?

Yes, paired with a clear understanding of their expectations. If brands jump in for the sake of it, then there's really no point. But if they have clearly articulated what problem they're solving with Twitter, it's a great place to be accessible and have those spur of the moment conversations with customers.

Q. Are there any trends in how brands that are doing well behave?

We see brands that are putting out a lot of editorial content doing really well. This works because while half of the content is the article, the other half of the content is the conversation they're generating with others on the article. Brands who dedicate resource to fostering this conversation, in the context of community management, do better as it allows the brand to enter a conversation authentically.

Q. What are the benefits of providing customer support on Twitter versus other platforms?

It's totally public, which means total accountability. There's really no limit to how much a good public customer interaction could have on building brand equity. A lot of brands pull people into Direct Messages really quickly and strip away that accountability, and whilst there is a degree of practicality to this approach; demonstrating a positive customer service experience can go a long way. 

There's a general consensus amongst consumers that people vent on social media, so how a brand responds in this situation can mitigate the impact of a bad review and leave a good impression on other consumers observing this unfold.

Q. How do you find your audience on Twitter?

Twitter is great because you can find niche audiences really easily. Finding the accounts of people who are interested in the topics that you want to talk about, spending the time to build up goodwill and engagement - goes a long way.

A lot of artists will go and engage a niche community several months before they drop a new album, to leverage positive goodwill and learn from their audience. This helps in the gathering of insights and building up an 'authority' position when they have a new album to introduce.

Q. There's a lot of brands, especially when you look to the United States who have a unique tone of voice on Twitter – how can brands go about finding their own? 

I think the typical 'sassy play' implemented by McDonalds and others in the United States has become the expected now. It's no longer a unique, interesting, engaging piece that will have the effect it used to. More broadly, I've seen brands and people shift away from engaging with this tone of voice. There's such a fine line between humorous and disingenuous that brands who try to adopt this tone often end up getting burnt.

In the long run, Twitter works well when you can be prolific by focusing on key subject matters and becoming an authority in that subject matter. For example, if you're a sustainable fashion outlet; you're commenting on sustainability, you're commenting on political things that concern that industry, and you're commenting on fashion. And before you know it, you've found four different groups of people who you are engaging with you from several different spheres.

Q. Is the hashtag alive and well?

Yes, on Twitter we see it used a lot at events like when a new product such as a MacBook comes out, everyone who's talking about it is using that hashtag. Because of this, Twitter is usually the first place many people will go to find out about breaking news events or see discourse from different voices. Unlike Facebook, which determines what voices you'll hear from based on your previous behaviour, on Twitter, different authority voices will be shown.

Q. Twitter introduced new rules around re-tweeting, fake news and political ads. How do you see this privacy play working out?

It was a very much a public dig at Facebook (who have come under scrutiny for their political advertising policy) that doesn't solve a problem. There's not a lot of political advertising on Twitter, and I can’t foresee see Twitter ever bringing fact-checking onto the platform. It's not really viable. While the intent is good, this all reads more like a PR stunt.