Dale Denham wrote a great post for us last week, “Promotional Products Suppliers Stink at Twitter,” that I wanted to follow up on. If you haven’t read it yet, go do that now (and be sure to read the infographic as well). All good? On to the follow-up then!
I absolutely agree with Dale, though I’d cast the net of Twitter stinkiness a bit wider. With rare exception, all of us could probably stand to improve our Twitter skills in one way or another. So with that in mind, I thought it might be helpful to build off some of Dale’s ideas and show some examples of excellent Twitter feeds and talk about what we can learn from them. I thought Dale explained some of the most critical problems and solutions really well in his post, but for all the people who learn best by looking at examples (like myself), I thought looking at some of the best accounts out there might be another way to work at getting better.
1. STARBUCKS (Be Useful)
Starbucks is one of better product-centric accounts I’ve seen. For a corporate account, it’s surprisingly unintrusive (only a few tweets a day, all written in a friendly, lightly mellow voice) and makes great use of photography (an easy way to make your tweets far more engaging). But, more important than anything else, the Starbucks feed follows the golden rule of Twitter: giving followers what they want.
The feed is PACKED with coupon, discount and service offers, as well as other valuable information for brand fanatics (when certain seasonal coffee flavors will be available, etc.). The Starbucks feed is great because it provides something useful to its followers. It’s not a billboard or a radio-ad stuck on loop, it’s a tool that helps fans get more of the product they like. That’s what makes people follow and share it, by creating value rather than a new way for people to get commercial advertisements.
2. Chris Brogan (Be Human)
I don’t follow a lot of marketers outside of the industry (perhaps to my failing), but Chris Brogan stands out as one of my favorites. Take a look at his feed, and you should notice the same thing I did: he does virtually no self-promotion. How refreshing is that?
Remember that the people following you on Twitter are actually human beings, and not pieces of uncooked dough ready to be beaten and shaped by the relentless advertising-bat. Use Twitter for talking, like Chris does. Be interesting, be nice, be fun, just like you would in real life, and watch as your Twitter feed becomes much more engaging and effective.
3. The Rock (Be Touching)
For a guy who’s made a career out of frothing, pretend violence, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson has one of the happiest, endlessly positive Twitter feeds out there. It’s odd, and largely about running 12 miles while dragging a car and always believing in yourself, but it works and at least for me, makes my day better every time I read it. Some sample tweets:
“”They say ‘sky’s the limit’. How ’bout we just make it our point of view..” #NoLimits”
“Up before the sun. AM cardio starts now. As does a little sweet ass thing we call “sweat equity” ~ #TeamBringIt”
Your enjoyment may vary depending how much you like hopeful, macho aphorisms. I happen to like them since it makes proofing 9,000 product blurbs way easier/less depressing when you know someone else has the guts to wake up, exercise by bench-pressing a car for a while, and be happy about it. (Perspective is everything, right?)
It doesn’t have to be through motivational tweeting, but emotionally connecting with followers can have a profound impact on the power of your Twitter feed. After all, loyalty and “brand evangelism” are not purely value-driven mindsets, emotion plays an important role in their development and growth.
It might be a bit of a challenge for a Twitter account focused on marketing, but isn’t it worth a try? Is there a way you can connect emotionally with your followers, whether it’s through cute cat pictures, motivational thoughts, funny jokes, whatever?
Thanks for reading guys, and see you all next week!
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