We all think of Twitter as probably the largest focus group on the Internet. This platform has always been the place for people to share their raw and unfiltered opinions not only about things happening in their lives but also about brands and their communication. Twitter’s team got curious about it, too, and just recently did research analyzing the platform’s users’ attitude toward social media marketing, brand communication, and what it all means for social media marketing’s future.
To get the most accurate data and insights, Twitter took five thousand unprompted tweets about brands and identified shifts and trends in attitudes on how brands behave on social media. Meaning their messaging, the visuals they use, the underlying causes of their statements, and everything in between.
To make it even more accurate, Twitter also took 20 iconic, worldwide brands and surveyed their tweets over the last three years to see how they correlate (or don’t) with the public’s opinion. And although the research was limited to Twitter only, its findings deliver loads of invaluable information about social media marketing any brand should read into.
The Intel
First of all, marketing people should never forget that it’s the real people who will be looking at and absorbing a brand’s social media communication rather than other marketing specialists. And the real people have finally spoken:
People are savvy
When it comes to brand communication, people are way savvier than marketing professionals tend to think. They see right through the intentions, and if there’s a lack of authenticity, people won’t hesitate to point it out. That’s because audiences pay attention to a brand’s communication – in the last couple of years (probably because of the pandemic), engagement with brand-created content, like replies and quote tweets, doubled in their numbers.
Another thing that this research unveiled is that people care a lot about a brand’s response to things happening in real life – yup, like the pandemic, political instabilities, and everything else that makes up our reality. And if a brand uses a certain cause insincerely, the audiences dismiss the information because of its lack of authenticity and honesty. What’s more is that people truly expect a brand they are following to react to an ongoing crisis in their social media communication – not to sell using it, but to disclose their views and show their support for a certain cause.
People want originality
Brands want to follow the rules that proved to be working for somebody else’s social media marketing. However, it seems that every brand is now following the same rules, making any given tweet or post indistinguishable and absolutely the same as their competitor’s. That, of course, isn’t a rule of thumb in itself but rather a forcefully emerging trend as there still are marketing gems that instantly catch audiences’ attention.
To prove this theory, Twitter created a test that consisted of world-famous brands’ tweets sans any identifiable information of the owners like logo, name, often used keywords and hashtags. After that, people were asked to identify the tweet’s owner, and only one out of three guessed correctly.
Then, Twitter took it a step further by analyzing famous brands’ tweets over three years, and, unsurprisingly, it did show brands’ using the same keywords same archetypes and even adopting the exact same length of their tweets.
Even more alarming is that people tend to disagree with brands using humor as their sole communication weapon. To put it simply – read the room. A joke might be a terrible mistake if people are concerned about a cause.
Now, what should brands talk about? Well, about everything, just as long as they do it authentically and meaningfully, without using the topic as an endorsement of their own services or products. Remember the people being savvy?
People want diversity
Communities on social media are indeed more diverse and nuanced than ever, and brands should definitely acknowledge that. For example, on Twitter’s research, people agreed almost unanimously that a brand’s account and communication should reflect the full diversity of their clients and not just a type of customer. So, addressing a specific community is a good thing, but it has to be done with full respect and transparency.
Of course, communicating with specific communities with a single tweet won’t cut it – again, with people being savvy. And probably the greatest example is Pride Month, where every brand jumps in the wagon and then forgets all about their queer customers for the next 11 months of the year. And people do notice that!
So… What’s Next?
Distinction, distinction, and even more distinction!
Brands that communicate clearly who they are and what values they stand for have a greater chance to appeal to audiences. Distinction is your brand’s tone, the topics you speak about, and the people you speak to. It would be a great idea not to forget these three markers when planning your social media marketing.
Of course, don’t be surprised when your brand’s bold tone gets a negative response, like facepalming emoji, but don’t worry too much about it. Twitter also dug into that and figured that even if you get such emojis as a reaction to your posts, the positive ones will still outweigh them.
Authentic topics
Now, you saw your competitor succeeding by talking loads about one important topic? You’ve decided to try it too, but with no success? Well, then that might be the case of a topic that is irrelevant both to your brand and your audiences. This means that jumping into the cases that others talk about might just make you lose yourself in the sea of the same, robbing your brand of authenticity and distinction. Talk about the things your brand truly represents!
Self-Awareness
It’s the brand’s decision on which social issues and crises to pitch in to – all of them are equally important, but be aware of talking about sensitive topics meaningfully and authentically. Then it will resonate with audiences rather than infuriate them.
Talk to your audiences
Talking for all is the same as talking to no one at all! So instead, re-discover your brand’s audiences and the communities it is beloved in the most, and reach for them. Being specific means being noticed, and that’s much better than left unseen and unheard, don’t you agree?
Now, it was huge research done by Twitter in a three-year course, but if distilled like here, the findings still speak volumes about people’s behavior and preferences on brand’s social media communication. Hopefully, you’ll consider these pointers when thinking about your social media marketing strategies or rehaul them if need be. Then, you should see your followers growing and your brand gaining the exact awareness it’s definitely worthy of.
