Brands are getting smarter, more reactive on Twitter

Brands are getting smarter about their presence on Twitter by ditching quantity for quality content that is geared to drive engagement with audiences at ever-higher levels, according to a new Twitter Benchmark report published by Simply Measured, a social analytics company.

The study, which is based on the Twitter activity of the Interbrand 2014 Best 100 Global Brands, found that top brands on Twitter didn’t increase posting frequency or audience size dramatically in Q4, yet per-post engagement rose by a whopping 85% year-on-year. This suggests that brands are creating better, more engaging content to connect with current audiences but it also means that brands are finally getting the hang of what works and what doesn’t for their business on the microblogging platform, and targeting their approach accordingly.

For example, visuals are known to perform better for brands on Twitter and the research found that photos made up 55% of all tweets sent by these companies, and accounted for 57% of all engagement. Similarly, the number of top brands using hashtags more than doubled in the past year, indicating a better understanding of how their brands use, and their networks consume information on Twitter.

The study also highlighted that brands are increasingly using Twitter to respond to queries on Twitter thereby indicating a stronger customer service role via the platform. The Interbrand 100 brands surveyed posted 145,828 Tweets in Q4 2014, which was up 25% over Q4 2013 of which @Replies accounted for 68% of brand tweets. Moreover, 91% of brands replied to users at least once during Q4 2014.

The level of engagement these companies have achieved on Twitter throws light on their dedicated presence on the network but more importantly denotes a shift from a purely proactive to reactive presence on the platform as well – a lesson for brands ranked 101 and beyond.

Featured Image Courtesy of  mkhmarketing of StartBloggingOnline.com