Major players are too corporate on Twitter

The majority of organisations are simply using Twitter as a broadcasting tool to push news and other content, according to analysis conducted by social media specialist immediate future of 140 leading international organisations, examining specifically how they interact with their Twitter communities.

Unsurprisingly, 27% of organisations who broadcast, adopt a more conservative approach with a formal tone of voice; being rather introverted and talking only about themselves or their industry. However a few, such as Ford, Hyatt Concierge and Starbucks, are maximising the value of engaging audiences, embracing free-flowing discussions and talking about interests that inspire their communities and benefiting from a wide range of followers and increased recommendations through re-tweets.

“Unless you broadcast really useful tweets such as news and information, you are likely to be perceived as the self-centred, crashing bore at the Twitter party,” says Katy Howell, md, immediate future. “The analysis shows it’s those organisations that participate in the community who gain the most - more followers, more recommendations, more participation and ultimately, a greater and more vocal advocacy.”

The analysis also reveals that the frequency of tweeting appears to vary a great deal. On average, some like BMW, only tweeted once a month when they started, while others, such as Innocent Drinks, tweet up to 900 times a week

The study forms the basis of a detailed whitepaper, ‘The Truth about Twitter’, which looks at a wide range of organisations across different sectors, from consumer electronics brands such as Dell to retail brands like Whole Foods Market, all of which are using Twitter with varying degrees of success.

“Statistics can give a very valuable, but one-dimensional perspective of what works on social media platforms such as Twitter,” says Niall O’Malley, group account director, immediate future. “It is only when you scrutinise the strategies, the successes and the failures that you identify the elements of credible best practices.”

The whitepaper gives best practice guidelines including reputation management, highlighting examples of brand hi-jacking and brand-squatting and offering tips on how to guard against this as well as responding to negative comments.

http://www.immediatefuture.co.uk