Who’s #winning on Twitter

Are you marketing your brand to its full potential on Twitter? Can you sell yourself in 140 characters or less?

While the character limit on Twitter may be small, the potential to reach customers and market your brand is huge. 58 million tweets go out every day from over 645 million Twitter users. That might sound like a lot of noise, but what it is is potential.

Twitter is a free tool that any brand or business can use. Yes, it takes time, talent and strategy to #win at Twitter, but winning will help you build brand recognition and connect with new customers or fans.

Perhaps a quick look at who’s #winning on Twitter will help inspire you to propel your own brand to Twitter stardom.

@JimmyFallon – He’s funny…and so much more

Yes, he’s a professional comedian, of course he’s funny on Twitter. But it takes more than wit for @JimmyFallon to win at late night TV and Twitter. A quick look through his tweets will show you he knows his audience and talks to it. He interacts with his followers, asking them for stories, feedback and ideas. And when they share, he rewards them for it. @JimmyFallon responds to his supporters; he retweets them and replies to them; he asks them follow-up questions. He knows that the key to a strong following is engagement.

You don’t need professional joke writers on your team, or an audience the size of Jimmy Fallon’s to benefit from engaging with your fans or customers on Twitter. You just need a plan, an account, and someone to monitor it and respond. You don’t even have to be funny (although that usually can’t hurt).

@WholeFoods – The way to a customer’s wallet is through the stomach

People probably love to eat as much as they love to laugh. But it’s not hunger that has made @WholeFoods a winner on Twitter. Whole Foods might be selling food, but they aren’t selling on Twitter. @WholeFoods offers information about food and recipes. @WholeFoods shares information with their followers about how to better grow their own food, even. @WholeFoods understands that sharing information for food and becoming a resource for people who love food will build their brand. And they have no qualms about enticing followers with colorful eye-catching photos.

You don’t need to know how to make Chicken Kiev to win at Twitter. But you do need to know what information your target audience wants and deliver it freely. Relevant and appealing images won’t hurt your brand any either.

@Esurance – It’s not funny and you can’t eat it

Guess what, no industry is too boring for Twitter, Without food or years of standup experience, @Esurance is still managing to win on Twitter. That’s because they are not only creating funny content about insurance, @Esurance also shares relevant information and engages with their followers. And of course, there are the giveaways, too. Along with thoughtful and sometimes funny content, @Esurance has built their brand quickly by offering giveaways and contests that get people tweeting about them.

You don’t have to give away gas gift cards or vacations to engage your followers on Twitter. Well-executed Twitter contests can get people creating buzz about your brand, even if there isn’t a huge prize in it.

So, who’s #winning at Twitter? Everyone using it to build a recognizable brand online is winning. It could be your brand. But, you can’t win if you don’t play.

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