Thursday, May 26, 2016

10 of the Best Brands on Twitter (And Why They're So Successful)

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When it was first created, Twitter was designed mostly for individuals. It was a place for people to share succinct versions of their thoughts and ideas with the world.


As it grew in popularity, brands jumped on board and began using the platform to communicate with consumers. Over the past decade, it's become a go-to platform for engaging with fans and increasing brand exposure.


Brands that tweet out quality content tend to see a lot of success on Twitter. But what exactly does quality brand content on Twitter look like?


Below is a list of 10 brands -- even those in seemingly "boring" industries -- that are consistently tweeting out great content. (And to learn more about how to succeed on Twitter, download our introductory guide to Twitter for business.)


10 of the Best Brands on Twitter


1) JetBlue


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When it comes to brands who "do it all" Twitter, JetBlue takes the cake. From their Twitter description (below) to their team of dedicated customer service professionals that answers every single question tweeted their way, the folks at JetBlue consistently go above and beyond to delight customers on Twitter.


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I'll never forget what their Manager of Customer Commitment Laurie Meacham told me in an interview back in 2014:



We're all about people, and being on social media is just a natural extension of that. It's no different than any other part of the airline."



As a consumer, when you tweet at a company that has over 16,000 employees, you may not expect a response very quickly (if at all). But JetBlue is on another level -- and they've done a fantastic job differentiating themselves on Twitter by finding clever ways to exceed our expectations.


Just take a look at their reply tweets to see what I mean -- and read this blog post for a deeper dive into JetBlue's unique Twitter strategy.


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2) Innocent Drinks


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We've long admired Innocent Drinks for their consistently lovable branding. While they may be a smoothie and juice brand, they stay far away from pushily promoting their products.


In fact, most of their social media posts aren't about smoothies or drinks at all. Instead, they use social media to foster their silly, fun, clever, and creative brand personality.


"We want to tell people about us in the most engaging way we can," said Community Manager Helena Langdon told Audiense in an interview. "It's our goal to make our pages a place on social media where people want to visit and enjoy seeing in their timelines, then people won't mind when we try to sell them drinks every now and again.”



Here's another example:



It's this approach to Twitter that makes them stand out from the crowd -- and it certainly works for their audience. Their head of digital and communities Joe McEwan says that people really connect with their brand because they talk like human beings, without jargon or "technical mumbo jumbo."


"It helped to set us apart," he said, "and it got people talking about us. It's completely ingrained in the company that we should look to talk to people wherever they might be.”


3) Major League Baseball (MLB)


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The MLB (Major League Baseball) is a complex system of teams, players, statistics, trades, and more. Instead of housing all these activities under a single Twitter handle, they've done a great job segmenting different parts of the game into different Twitter handles. (And they list all their affiliated Twitter handles in their cover photos -- a very nice touch.)


Their @MLBStatOfTheDay handle, for example, is for the statistics nerds out there, pairing interesting statistics with relevant video clips.



Meanwhile, @MLBReplays tweets each challenge a coach makes against an umpire's call and its result. @MLBRosterMoves, sponsored by moving company Penske, sends a tweet every time a player is added or removed from a team's roster.


My favorite MLB Twitter account, though, is @MLBGIFs. The concept is brilliant in its simplicity: Each tweet features a GIF paired with a funny one-liner. These GIFs capture some of the cool, funny, and weird moments that take place during a baseball game -- everything from diving catches to dancing fans to high-fiving players.


Here are two examples:



And:



GIFs are shareable, relatable, and delightful -- and MLB really nailed it by creating a separate Twitter handle to embrace them. (Want to learn how to create your own animated GIFs in Photoshop? Read this blog post for a tutorial.)


4) DiGiorno Pizza


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DiGiorno Pizza is one of the funniest (and definitely one of the strangest) brands to follow on Twitter. Their tweets are usually about pizza, but not in the uber-promotional way you'd expect.


For example, do you remember that time in 2013 when DiGiorno Pizza live-tweeted NBC's The Sound of Music and broke the internet? Here, let me jog your memory:



The entire thing was weird and hilarious. It was also a great example of a brand hopping on a popular hashtag (in this case, #TheSoundofMusicLive) to chime in on the already-popular conversation. In the two hours of live-tweeting, the company tweeted 38 times, garnered over 44 million social impressions for that week, and picked up over 4,000 new followers.


Most of their tweets are funny odes to pizza -- and some of them still have that same crazy, erratic voice they used in the live-tweeting, which'll often leave you totally confused and laughing hysterically all at the same time. 


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