MARKETING
10 steps of Twitter
TEN STEPS OF TWITTER
Step 10: Keep
your followers
close and your
rivals closer
Each month, Joel Windels of Brandwatch helps us to improve our Twitter feed with handy tips
and advice. This month, we’re looking at how working with rivals can be mutually beneficial
T
here are an increasing
amount of Twitter
accounts that have
huge swathes of
followers, despite not
posting particularly engaging
or unique content. They post
interesting tweets, but their
posts are by no means especially
brilliant - their content could
easily be reproduced by any
internet-savvy tweeter.
You will have probably seen
some of these accounts whilst
scrolling through Twitter. They
find their way on to millions
of news feeds due to the
enormous amount of retweets,
favourites, and followers that
they inspire, giving them an
almost constant presence on
the trending and discovery
pages. Here are a few examples
of these types of accounts:
@HistoricalPics - 1.4 million
followers
@Earth_Pics - 1.8 million
followers
@FootballFunnys - 1.1 million
followers
@RelatableQuote - 2.6 million
followers
@EarthPix - 1.34 million
followers
@HistoryInPics - 1.74 million
followers
These accounts are not
brands, companies, famous or
opinionated individuals. They
are very broad fan groups,
supplying content that can be
understood and appreciated by
the masses.
How did these accounts
become so popular? Simple by working with their rivals
to promote their accounts.
These accounts have agreed,
probably informally, to share
retweets amongst themselves.
They will each retweet three
of their competitors’ tweets
in a row, in return for three
retweets of their own content.
It’s the fairly basic idea of a
retweet for a retweet, but on a
much greater, more effective scale.
The accounts gain at
least double the reach and
engagement than they could
manage by themselves. They
will regularly swap retweets
with one another, allowing them
to access millions of new users
without any direct financial cost.
More significantly, they
don’t lose many followers from
doing this. Followers don’t react
badly to new content being
shared on their feed, and many
end up interacting with these
new accounts.
Moreover, these accounts
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communicate via direct
messaging or by email,
meaning their followers
will never see a request for
a retweet publically, as, for
many eagle-eyed tweeters, this
could appear desperate to both
current and potential followers.
Doubling or tripling reach
in social media is becoming
increasingly difficult, with
more accounts vying for
attention than ever before.
So, as illogical as it may seem
to stay connected with rivals
and competitors, or even
have contact with them, the
importance of using them
could be a potential gold mine
for your brand on Twitter.
Of course we’re not
suggesting Coca Cola and Pepsi
should start acting chummy
on social media. But if your
brand forged relationships
with similar accounts in your
market, you could reap benefits
far greater than many paid or
time-intensive campaigns.
This truly emphasises the
importance of keeping your
rivals close on Twitter, because
it’s their influence that can be
your greatest asset.
We’re not
suggesting
Coca Cola and
Pepsi should
start acting
chummy,
but forging
relationships
with similar
Twitter
accounts
could reap
benefits
greater than
many paid
campaigns
Contact:
www.brandwatch.com
talkbusinessmagazine.co.uk 73
29/08/2014 12:37