Making social media stick

Paul Frost, head of strategy at Positive Digital, looks at the power of Twitter.

The ‘pound every time I’m asked it’ Question of the Year award for 2009 definitely goes to Should We Be Using Social Media?

With Twitter logo ubiquity, Facebook-in-the-office bans and the proliferation of devices that transform social media into a major online addiction, there is a certain inevitability about the level of interest from advertisers and marketers.

But in these heady days of a new technology emerging every week, is it valid to say that the increasing obsession with social media only encourages agencies and clients alike to further confuse tools with strategy? Although applications such as Twitter represent a significant opportunity, making micro-blogging platforms work for brands requires a lot of thought and thorough planning.

Latest industry data for popular consumer brands in sectors such as travel still suggests that downstream traffic from Twitter is relatively low. Undoubtedly, this is in part a consequence of the relatively small number of organisations currently utilising this potential marketing platform. But I also suspect that those brands that are gauging the temperature of the social media primordial ooze are struggling to understand what to do with the media.

Even brands that have been comparatively successful in adopting Twitter as a messaging platform still have a modest number of followers compared with political figures, celebrities and marketing evangelists.

Part of the reason for this must ultimately come back to the reasons that people use Twitter in the first place. Although some recent research suggests a broadening in the types of information read and syndicated, there is still some unfamiliarity within the audience who use micro-blogging platforms.

Checking out the Top 200 Index, it is clear that having a personality associated to the Tweeter is key in generating critical mass in terms of followers, but the fact that Alexandr Orlov is more influential within the Twitter universe than Boris Johnson, John Prescott or even Hildog speaks volumes about how marketing campaigns can tap into this audience need. Either that, or it’s an indication of how an ever more cynical audience have begun to view online political posturing.

This is not to say that mascot marketing collateral is a prerequisite for success: the driving principle here is that the potential audience for messaging has a need to be serviced through interaction. It also shows that using other media to promote awareness of the opportunity to hold a dialogue is important in achieving initial groundswell and word of mouth surrounding a brand or product. Brands using Twitter can tap into current discussions and mentions surrounding its products and services, and, as a result, track on a ‘live’ basis the reaction to their offering.

Having said this, caution must still be applied whilst using Twitter. This approach has been somewhat disastrously explored by several brands, with the resulting key page real estate takeover becoming a graffiti wall for profanity rather than the positive community spirit initially envisioned by these early adopters.

So what’s working well?
Reviewing some of the best in class who currently employ Twitter as a PR release channel, it’s apparent that even they do not generate the level of interaction required to achieve critical mass. Some brands are still not updating their feeds often enough, with others updating too often and tending to push sales/marketing related messaging only – a huge turn-off for potential customers and influencers.

This contrasts starkly with the more community-orientated approach employed by significantly more successful charities and local initiatives, where frequency of update and, perhaps as importantly, editorial content support tend to be more forthcoming.

This example highlights one final point about making micro blogging work: organisations need to remember that interest in their brand needs to be rewarded. Otherwise they run the risk of discarding a dialogue for a monologue, and in essence, making a megaphone out of a telephone.