(by Mike Stiles) Ever wonder what the most successful brands are doing that warrants their getting mentioned on Twitter? Yeah, me too. I?m always interested in what strikes a cord with followers, whether it?s of information or entertainment value.HootSuite recently compiled a list of the top 15 brands on Twitter. Not based on the number of followers, but rather how often they were mentioned in tweets and showed up as a trending topic. As I?ve written before, your station should probably spend less time figuring out how to get a ton of followers and more time figuring out how to get followers that will be notably active and useful to you as brand ambassadors.
For my purposes, I?m eliminating the top 4: Twitter, Google, Facebook and Apple. It makes sense the platforms people use for social would take the top spots. And what I?ll say about Apple is, there?s a brand whose fan base operates at idolatry levels at all times. We should all live to ever have a product that?s that good.
So let?s look at the next four: McDonald?s, Nike, MySpace, and Nissan. These brands weren?t involved in any major controversies in 2011 that would fuel excessive talk in the twitterverse. So why are people tweeting about them? I did a quick hashtag check to see what?s currently being said about them to help give us a clue.
McDonald?s-Lots of talk about gift cards, who got one, whether it?s a good gift or not.
-Lots of pics being taken and sent to friends of McDonald?s meals.
-Debate over the new hot compliment, being called an ?Egg McMuffin?
-Discussion about menu items only available internationally.
-Alerts of McDonald?s cravings people are having
Here?s a Clue: McDonald?s presents fans with tangible products to photograph, to crave, to give, and to seek out. As easy as McDonald?s is to get, it?s still an ?experience.? We are also easy to get?and free. We need to make coming to our stations more of an experience worth craving and seeking out again. To do that, we have to give our listeners a feeling.
Nike-Nike NFL uniform anticipation
-Discussion of current outdoor advertising
-Discussion of the Nike Kobe System video
-Lots of pics of people with Nike merchandise.
-New product announcements
Here?s a Clue: Nike keeps the excitement up by keeping customers wondering, ?What are they going to do next?? What?s the next shoe going to look like? When people finally get it, they?re so stoked they take pictures of them like they were a newborn baby. What is your station doing to keep listeners anticipating what?s next, always on the edge of their seats? And when you do the new thing, is it so cool listeners want to tell everybody?
MySpace-The announcement of MySpace TV by Justin Timberlake at CES
-It?s apparently getting hip to go back and check out your old, abandoned MySpace page -Debate over whether it can be revived or should dieHere?s a Clue: If your radio station has fallen completely off the radar and you?re dead last in the ratings and it feels like every listener in the city has abandoned you?you?re not necessarily over. It?s amazing what kind of attention reinvigoration and true innovation can bring you.
Nissan-Talk of the new generation of Pathfinder
-Tweets about performance specs
-Congrats on breaking UK manufacturing records
-Nissan Leaf test drive reactionsHere?s a Clue: Again, a steady flow of either new products, or new versions of existing products drive conversation and debate. How much are you talking about your new music in your tweets? Do you alert followers the instant a new song gets put into rotation? Do you link to new artists? pages? Do you agitate discussion on how often a new song should be played? Followers are also interested in how Nissan is doing as a company. Are you keeping listeners at arms-length or letting them be insiders so they can root for you against the competition?
So there you have just a few lessons from successful brands you can apply to your own Twitter strategy to make sure your station is relevant to listeners and you?re genuinely giving them a reason to tweet about you. Do it right and you?ll be the awesome Egg McMuffins we know you can be.
Mike Stiles is a writer/producer with the social marketing tech platform, Vitrue, and head of Sketchworks comedy theatre. Check out his monologue blog, The Stiles Files.
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