The Most Engaged Brands on Twitter

You have heard it before and you will hear it again, an engaged brand is a successful brand. Out of all the social media options out there, Twitter has become one of the go-to platforms for customer engagement. Twitter is a fantastic channel for brands to create a conversation with their fans. Of course, a large number of fans and an increased tweet frequency has a lot to do with the success of a brand, but as we can see from the infographic created by Nestivity below, it is not a direct correlation. Having 10 million followers sounds like an impressive number, and it is, but if that following isn't engaged, it doesn't really mean anything. A few of the more interesting facts we gathered from this infographic are:

• More followers did not correlate into a more engaged brand
• A higher tweet frequency also did not correlate into a more engaged brand
• Tweets sent between 2pm and 5pm generated the most engagement
• 76% of shared tweets contained a photo

Remember, engagement is king. Take notes from the top brands on this list and try implementing similar tactics into your own Twitter campaign.

-Mike & Samantha

Twitter Pulls Away From Rivals in Social Curating

We are all aware of the major social media platforms out there, from Facebook to Twitter, a successful brand must utilize them all. Each platform has its place in a successful marketing campaign, but new research shows that businesses are favoring one platform over the other, Twitter. According to social software startup, Livefyre, 93% of business are curating real-time, social activity from Twitter, while only 89% are using Facebook. Continuing down the social media ladder, 50% of business reported generating content from YouTube, and 41% are using Instagram. 

Why are these numbers so important? One of the biggest challenges for brands today is creating great content. A company can post content over all the social platforms 24/7, but if that content is not relevant to their target market, it is just a big waste of time and resources. Utilizing platforms, like Twitter, allows a brand to see what people are already saying about them organically. Once these trends are identified, a successful brand can leverage them to market themselves in a very authentic and poignant way.

Data from Livefyre's research shows that:

• 82% of businesses have increased user engagement from curating social activity.
• 88% of the businesses leveraging real-time social applications, have increased user engagement.
• 41% reported an increase in site traffic as a direct result of making their websites more social friendly.

We all know how critical it is for a business to monitor social media in order get a true feel for the public sentiment on their brand. What may not be so obvious, is how important social curating is to content creation. It is so important for a successful online presence to have relevant, engaging, and consistent content going out to its target market. What better way to create this content than leverage what is already out there, supplied by the customers themselves.

-Mike & Samantha

Chipotle Plans Fake Twitter Hack

Last week, Chipotle became the latest big brand to have their Twitter account hacked -- or so everyone thought! Chipotle's Twitter handle, @ChipotleTweets, tweeted a handful of posts within an hour, all of which seemed incredibly random. Since then, Chipotle admitted that they did in fact fake an account hacking to tie with their 20th anniversary marketing campaign. Although Chipotle successfully received over 4,000 followers after the apparent "hacking" (compared to their typical 250 followers a day) and about 12,000 retweets (versus 75 RTs a day), there are many social skeptics who don't necessarily agree with this marketing 'tactic,' including us.

We get the original thought behind the faked hacking. Yes, it gets new eyes on the brand. Yes, it keeps Chipotle at the top of mind for many Twitter users. Having said this, many of these new followers only found interest in Chipotle because of the hack -- not necessarily because they are true fans of the brand. This means that the actual quality of the fan following may not be ideal, as many will not be necessarily interested in the content that Chipotle has to say in the future. Unless the 4,000 followers continue to increase Chipotle's conversations and fan engagement for the long term, we don't see the overall benefit.

Lastly, there's something to say about faking your own Twitter takeover. When Burger King and Jeep had their Twitter accounts hacked, their stories caught fire because it was organic, had never been done before and showed how vulnerable brand social media accounts can be.  Unfortunately with previous fake hackings, like MTV, BET and now Chipotle, these cries for attention feel forced and inauthentic.

Our advice? As a large brand within the social space, take the time to find a way to gain attention that feels genuine to your fans. Spend your resources to take the road less traveled in order to gain followers who will engage and be with you until the end.

What do you think of the latest faked 'hack?'

Here are the original tweets:

-- Samantha & Mike

The Silencer

Do you have Facebook friends who are always spoiling the latest episode of Game of Thrones or the newest blockbuster flick? Do you have friends who you would rather not see activity for anymore, but don't want to go through the trouble of explaining why you unfriended them? If you do, the Google Chrome Silencer plug-in may be for you. This plug-in allows you to add terms, phrases, names, or hashtags that you want silenced in your Facebook or Twitter feed. Not only do you have the option to manually create the silenced criteria, they also offer Mute Packs. These allow you to silence dozens of terms from popular shows like Mad Men or Game of Thrones with one click. The description of this plug-in according to Google is: Silencer lets you mute and filter any content you want out of your Twitter stream or Facebook News Feed.

Avoid TV show or sports spoilers. Block people that you can’t unfollow but aren’t really interested in anymore. Take back the Internet on your terms!

Introducing Mute Packs! Mute dozens of terms from “Game of Thrones,” “Mad Men,” or “Arrested Development” instantly with one click!

Mute terms, phrases, people or hashtags quickly and easily.

If you are not using Google Chrome as your browser yet, you should seriously consider it. They offer tons of helpful plug-ins and the Silencer seems like one we could all get a lot of use out of.

-Mike

Updating Your Twitter Profile Just Got Easier

If you ever thought making your Twitter profile look perfect is a little more difficult than it should be, this is for you. Twitter just made their profile editing easier and more user friendly. Don't take my word for it though, check out this video from Twitter explaining the process: [youtube=http://youtu.be/ZkP8riJvau8]

-Mike

Two-Step Verification for Twitter

It looks like Twitter has finally introduced a new two-step verification process for its platform. We have mentioned before how important it was that Twitter start offering this to its users, in light of the recent hacks to major Twitter accounts. Twitter is calling this service, login verification, and it works in conjunction with your cell phone. Once you set your preferences to require this new authentication process, whenever you login to your account, Twitter will send a special code via SMS text to your phone. Once you receive that phone, you enter it into your Twitter and you are ready to go. This code verification will be required every time a user logs off and back on.

[youtube=http://youtu.be/IsdvJI0AK5M]

It is good to see Twitter answering the calls and providing a more secure login for its users. With people relying more and more on Twitter for the latest news, no one can afford constant hacks from normally trustworthy sources.

-Mike

Let the Integration Continue

It seems there has been an ever increasing trend lately to integrate as many services into other services as possible. The latest in this trend is Yahoo's move to incorporate Twitter into its news stream. This is not a very surprising move, considering how important Twitter has become to news sources. Consistently proving to be the go-to source for the latest breaking news, Twitter has become a considerable asset in this field. Here is a quote from Yahoo's CEO: "Updates direct from politicians, celebrities, media outlets, and other publishers have become an important source of real-time news and information. 140 characters can connect athletes with their fans, capture live chatter from the red carpet, and inspire global debate... so we are thrilled to announce our partnership with Twitter to bring Tweets directly into the Yahoo newsfeed."

As you can see below, tweets from sources like ABC News will start to appear in the news feed.

This new feature will continue to roll out to all U.S. users over the next couple of days. We think this trend towards integration is great and will only continue to make everyone's lives easier and more convenient.

-Mike