Think Bonfire, Not Fireworks For Marketing On Twitter

Fireworks, which refer to planned campaigns that have all the marketing muscle and planning behind it work, given the marketer’s objective at the time but a bonfire, which imply a more sustained activity reaps higher rewards. This was the advice from Fahad Osman, Brand Strategy for Twitter MENA on how to get the best returns from the micro-blogging platform.

Reminding that mobile is an everyday touchpoint Mr Osman stated that mobile was the first screen, especially given statistics such as people unlocking their phones 110-150 times a day without even knowing it. He said, “Second screening is a concept people have created to sell more media. Our need for information has become pervasive. Companies that have invested in wearables are cognisant of this fact. Whether it is on an email or a social channel, our intent is to know more and that is something that marketers can tap into.”

Giving a sense of the multi-fold growth in media, he pointed that there were 1.5 billion loops on Vine every day, and the younger platform Periscope was seeing 10 years of live stream experiences on a daily basis. The implication is that people want to share, and when marketers are smart and good at tapping on the need to share, they will recognize the signals in conversations and deliver on them.

Fahad Osman, Twitter
Fahad Osman, Twitter

Bonfire Versus Fireworks
Citing an example to differentiate a bonfire from a firework, Mr Osman observed the behavior of people talking about relationships every day but Valentine’s Day only once a year. “These are two very different kinds of signals,” he explained.

The difference between a bonfire and firework is that the latter does not last forever because a marketer cannot keep spending and creating that kind of content through the year. Valentine’s Day, for instance is an example of firework. That is where a bonfire comes in. “Marketers should look to tap into signals of intent every single day by identifying repeatable moments in the consumers’ lives. This comes with practice. It is not something that can be built, but needs to be worked on. Brands that deliver relevance see excellent results,” Mr Osman said.

Referring to the Twitter Planning Framework, he said that between the ‘planned’ and ‘unplanned’, and the ‘everyday’ and ‘events’, it was the intersection of the ‘planned’ and ‘everyday’, where a brand’s initiatives will result in excellent engagement and uplift in brand love.

“If you are not capturing what is happening in the moment, you can become obsolete. We have seen that brands that are able to tap on everyday content, develop twice the return on advertising spends (ROAS),” Mr Osman divulged.

Impact, Relevance, Content
There are three broad parts to identifying signals. The first is to drive impact. Trends from the region indicate that people like to discuss zeitgeist, the everyday subjects than any big global happenings. A brand’s tonality and personality can come at the forefront if it can be part of this conversation. He said, “These are organically fantastic results. The region is gearing up for Ramadan. Around 29 percent of mentions in Ramadan talk about Eid. A brand must identify when it schedule its activities for maximum impact.”

The conversation in Ramadan can also be segmented into topics such as the daily routine, shopping, health, TV and sports. As these are all trending subjects and are likely to get more engagement.

The second part to this is that signals drive relevancy. Brands should look to target signals that people are interested in, in order to deliver against a specific business proposition. The final leg is about signals driving content, which is about listening to what people are saying, when they are saying it, and then developing content based on the same data source.

Mr Osman was speaking at the recently concluded Dubai Lynx International Festival of Creativity.

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