If you didn’t launch your new brand, product or service on Twitter, did you launch at all? Not only does news break first on Twitter, but with over 192 million daily active users and growing, brands can no longer afford to not be on Twitter, especially as the platform is making inroads into some of the world’s fastest-growing markets by now having headquarters on the African continent.
Through Twitter, brands can connect directly with consumers in real time about what they are talking about. It’s a people’s platform – they’re the ones driving conversations, talking about things that they are passionate about, things they’ve learnt, etc. Brands have an opportunity to be part of the conversation.
In our experience, brands that launch on Twitter see these conversations being sustained for over a month – that’s almost a 33% increase in sustained awareness from the day the conversation and the hashtag are seeded, to the launch, and that conversation carries on for about 43 days. This is because Twitter connects brands with audiences when they’re most receptive and the number one reason why people go on to Twitter is to discover something new and exciting.
Align
The best way for brands to become part of the conversation is to align with a particular moment and Ad Dynamo has identified three categories:
- Personal moments, which are when users talk about themselves and the things they like and dislike including food, music and sport
- Cultural moments such as Heritage Month and Valentine’s Day
- Brand moments, which are the ways in which brands make themselves more human such as when it is their birthdays.
Remain relevant
There are various topics and trends that brands can be at the forefront of and that is how they build cultural relevance. In fact, 23% of a consumer’s purchase decision is driven by cultural relevance. With people increasingly looking to brands to weigh in on global issues and what’s happening around them, this should be a key component in a brand’s Twitter strategy.
An example of this was a 2019 Tweet by Nike in support of embattled athlete, Caster Semenya. The Tweet, which simply read ‘Never slow down for the world, one day it will catch up with you. #Justdoit’ and was accompanied by an image of the runner, was seen 31 million times, mentioned 35 thousand times and saw 23 thousand unique authors getting involved. It’s worth noting too that brands need to extend their activity beyond peak moments by reinforcing their messages using an always-on approach.
To get audiences to stop scrolling and engage, brands need something in their arsenal with stopping power and that’s where creativity is crucial. Whether it’s video, 3D GIFs, branded image overlays or interactive automated solutions such as those offered by our technology partner Blue Robot, brands need to be doing something differently, as opposed to just putting out content so they can say ‘I’m part of the conversation’.
While Twitter might seem daunting to brands not au fait with the platform, there are partners that can help them navigate this new world. Ad Dynamo, for instance, offers a free resource to clients, complete with workshops, brainstorming sessions, campaign ad training and more, to help them take on Twitter and boost brand awareness. Ultimately, our aim is to connect brands with every consumer in Africa at scale.
Cornelis Ouwehand is sales director at Ad Dynamo, Twitter’s exclusive ad sales partner in Africa. Ad Dynamo is Africa’s largest digital media reseller, exclusively representing Twitter, Spotify, Snapchat and Verizon Media across Sub-Saharan Africa. By 2023, it aims to give brands access to every digitally connected user in Africa. In addition, its proprietary Blue Robot social media and messaging technology allows brands to connect with consumers at scale, on a personal level.
