With more than 99 percent of brands using Twitter for customer service and brand management, the importance of the oft-scoffed at social media tool has a lot to prove when it comes to ROI (return on investment).
Most marketing professionals have been faced with the difficulty in producing and proving direct conversions, and analytics tools haven’t figured out a great way to manage those types of transactions, either. Despite how frustrating it can be to manage a Twitter account or single campaign, there are some ways to gauge the success of a brand with the social site, and a new infographic highlights the major players and how they’re dominating.
Success can mean many things to many different people, from creating conversions and how frequently your brand gets mentioned to how quickly your team responds to those mentions. For small businesses, it sometimes amounts to how many big brands and celebrities interact with your company’s account and whether you can leverage those interactions to boost company follows.
One thing is for sure: Measuring ROI on Twitter is an imperfect science and your brand has to figure out what success actually looks like and then cater your digital plan to meet those goals (hey, we can help!). In the early days of Twitter it was all about collecting followers, but these days it’s more about quality than quantity (and that’s the trope of SEO and social media across the board).
The infographic making the rounds right now highlights five categories of Twitter domination:
- customer service
- sales
- social commerce (the use of social networks for e-commerce transactions)
- fundraising
- authenticity
Here are the winners and some interesting takeaways that your company might want to consider when finding a focus for success on Twitter.
- Taking a cue from Southwest Airlines, JetBlue won in customer service because they respond, on average, within 13 minutes to 79 percent of complaints “in the nicest way possible.” (Followers: more than 1.7 million)
- Online clothing retailer ASOS won for sales thanks to the creative use of a hashtag: #BestNightEver. The clever and completely cost-less call-to-action drove more than $7.8 million in sales and bumped searches in the U.S. by 50 percent. (Followers: more than 602,000)
- If you were busy growing a mustache in November, you’re part of the major success of Movember, which raised $19 million from 209,000 donators. How’d they do it? Strategic partnerships! (Followers: More than 57,000)
Check out the complete infographic with all of the major players over at Media Bistro.
How is your brand leveraging Twitter and measuring success? What have been the major challenges that you’ve faced while building a great customer service and brand presence?