How Are Brands Using Twitter? Facts, Stats, Recommendations

Each day, brands are actively discussed just about everywhere online; some listen but many don’t pay attention. Many still miss crucial opportunities by treating Twitter as exclusively a broadcast platform, expecting to influence customers with little to no community building efforts. Limiting Twitter solely to a one-way platform ignores the importance of broader engagement with customers.

Used effectively, Twitter can bring brands closer to their audience, generate traffic to their site, find new customers, increase brand awareness, along with developing advocates and much more. To understand the Twitter landscape Brandwatch have selected 253 top brands that best represented the market, covering a broad segment of popular brands in the UK, USA and elsewhere. The results are extremely valuable for businesses looking to adapt and compare with the leading competition in the wider market. Without further ado, let’s explore the report…

Twitter Activity

Of the 253 brands monitored, 97.6% brands tweeted, compared to 90% in 2012 and just 62% in 2011. More than half of these brands (145) tweeted 30 times per week or more. It also became apparent to ensure customers can find a brand on the platform, the handle should be as close to the company name as possible. 

Twitter Engagement

The majority of the brands used Twitter as a two way publishing channel – just 3% used the channel exclusively for engagement, only responding to customer inquiries. Among the top 100 most-followed brands, @Notebook, @ESPN, @Playstation and @Disney engaged the most with their Twitter audiences. From a UK perspective, @BBCBreaking, @chelseafc and @arsenal scored highly. 

Twitter Profiles

Over the last three years there’s been some clear changes in the number of Twitter profiles per brand. It’s increased nine-fold (from 7% to 63%) over the last three years. In 2013, 63% of brands used multiple accounts, compared to 2012 where only 35% used several accounts. A common use for these multiple accounts is to have one account that allows for engagement (customer service), and another for offers/company news. Dell has the most Twitter accounts (44), with each covering different departments. 

Community Management Team Size 

The average size of the team responsibility for Twitter was relatively similar in both the UK and the US. The maximum tweets per week for brands monitored in the US was 2,500, as opposed to just 113 tweets in the UK. Some other key findings:

Twitter Platforms

Surprisingly most brands still tweet via the Twitter web interface or the second best option, Hootsuite – 20 of the top 100 used Hootsuite including H&M, Gap, Porsche and IBM. A third of all brands preferred to use just the one tool to publish tweets. Tweeting through Twitter apps, such as iPhone apps, Twitterfeed and tweeting buttons, remained fairly popular for brands. There’s no surprise that as the popularity of social media grows, so do the number of platforms and tools. The most successful new entrants in the 2013 marketplace were Sprout Social and Conversocial. 

Recommendations for brands 

Twitter is a substantial source of opinions and experience about brands. For brands to capitalize on the platform it needs to be used appropriately & acted upon in order to develop campaigns for your target audience. Some may argue you don’t need to be on Twitter, especially with the noted absence on Apple, but without featuring you’re simply losing out in an already crowded marketplace.

One consideration for brands using Twitter is whether there’s a need for multiple accounts. By having several accounts you risk the chance of having fewer followers per account, and will take you longer to grow as a brand. However, it’ll help you deliver specific and clear messages to a target following. Another consideration is the usage between a marketing and customer service team – both ultimately need to use an account so sometimes it’s more appropriate to have separate accounts; one for broadcast and another for engagement. Ultimately as a brand manager you need to decide this, and choose the correct option for you business.

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