With social media now an established part of inbound marketing, most major commercial brands are on Twitter. Some are doing it better than others, however, and there’s a lot to be learned from them. With so much choice it’s difficult to determine who to follow, so we chose a few companies that are rocking the microblogging site. By identifying what they’re doing right, you can learn the tricks of the trade and implement those in your business social media strategy.
The Fast Foodies
Several fast food companies are doing great things with Twitter:
- Taco Bell: has celebrities on its side tweeting to their huge followings about the food and sponsored events held by the chain.
- McDonald’s: gives away prizes to followers who interact with the brand on Twitter.
- Arby’s: runs fun contests for coupons on new menu items. Keeps up to date with relevant events and tweets accordingly.
- Wendy’s: partners with affiliates to get higher tweet traffic for all parties.
- Dunkin’ Donuts: replies to tweets and offers customer service via Twitter.
- Applebee’s: tweets mouth-watering photos of its various offerings to whet the appetite of followers.
Creative Clothing Companies
In the ever-changing world of clothing collections, there’s a constant need to find creative ways of bringing the latest news to your target market. Fashion houses who have managed to get it right include H&M, which turned a behind-the-scenes shoot with David Beckham into a major Twitter campaign and Lululemon Athletica with yoga videos showing their apparel in action.
Then there’s DSW Shoe Warehouse, which offers special discounts and promotions to Twitter followers who have to send a text message to receive the option, and Nordstrom, which tweets style tips and ideas along with Instagram photos.
Recipes ‘n Riches
If your followers can’t have fabulous fast food, the next best thing is a recipe to make it themselves. A number of food companies have climbed onto the Twitter bandwagon with daily recipe tweets.
- Kraft Foods: offers snack and recipe ideas along with snappy shots of their various ad campaigns.
- Pillsbury: gives followers “recipes of the day” with ideas for parties and photos to make users hungry.
- Oreo: doesn’t tweet much in the way of product-specific information, but delivers witty one-liners and creates lots of fun around its cookies and current affairs.
- Whole Foods Market: gets engagement and feedback via Twitter by offering gift cards in exchange for market intelligence.
Coffee Culture
Who would ever have expected the coffee culture to become so large and influential? And yet, that’s exactly what has happened with the various coffee chains in North America, which jostle daily to outdo each other even though they all have fairly different offerings. And the battle’s not only being fought through content marketing but on Twitter too, although Starbucks holds front position at the moment with 3.8 million followers, regular coupons, promotions, cool photos and musical downloads. Caribou Coffee, Seattle’s Best and Peet’s Coffee are on Twitter but don’t get much interaction.
In the categories of coffee makers and consumer packaged goods, Keurig and Green Mountain lead the way with little opposition. Both rely heavily on the Twitter activity of their followers for exposure.
Airline Antics
Airlines that do well on Twitter include:
- Jet Blue: tweets about booking offers, company news and opportunities to win flights and tickets to concerts
- American Airlines: tweets special offers and travel deals on a daily basis
- Delta: has turned its Twitter account into a personalized help desk for travelers. All users need to do is follow the profile and they can connect immediately with a number of employees dedicated to sorting out their problem. For help and questions about cancellations, delays and lost baggage, it sure beats most other methods of making contact.
If your inbound marketing strategy includes social media but you’re struggling to make Twitter work for you, perhaps these successes will inspire you to come up with new and exciting ways to use the platform to benefit your company.
*Images courtesy of Twitter.com
