Brands Trumped by Entertainment on Twitter

February 19, 2010

adage wtt 255 Brands Trumped by Entertainment on Twitter The entertainment industry continues to dominate online conversations happening on the social Web, particularly on Twitter. In the second report in a new weekly Top 10 Most Tweeted Brands chart, which is a collaboration between Advertising Age and What The Trend, only three company or product brands made it into the top 10 for the week of February 12, 2010. Of those three company or product brands, all of them came from the technology industry. The rest of the most popular brand tweets were related to the entertainment industry — music, movies, sports, and so on.

Check out the list of the top 10 most tweeted brands for the week of February 12, 2010 below:

Justin Bieber
Olympics
NBA
Google Buzz
BRITs
We are the World
Windows Phone 7
MNIK
#becauseof nickiminaj
iPad

How can a company compete with tweets by adolescent girls about Justin Bieber and fans of controversial rappers like Nicki Minaj? The first step is to offer something that people actually want to talk about and share on Twitter. Without a catalyst for conversation about a brand, no one is going to tweet about it.

It’s important to remember that trending topics on Twitter are typically short-lived. The Olympics is hot right now, but in a few weeks, when the games are over, the Olympics won’t appear in the list of the top 10 trending brands on Twitter. Similarly, Google Buzz, iPad, and Windows Phone 7 were all hot in the news during the past week when big announcements and product launches were common conversations (both online and offline). It’s no wonder that these brands made it into the top 10 brands mentioned on Twitter during the week of February 12th, but will they be there during the week of March 12th? It’s unlikely unless another valuable piece of information that people actually want to talk about is released.

When it comes to using Twitter as a marketing tool, it’s essential to keep in mind that Twitter (like all social media) shouldn’t be a popularity contest. Just because a topic or tweet is popular today doesn’t mean that it will be tomorrow, and it doesn’t mean that it truly affects people. The key is to engage a targeted group of online influencers who can help you promote your brand, talk about it, and raise brand awareness, recognition and loyalty.

With that in mind, try not to sweat the numbers too much. Your Twitter efforts are only as strong as the loyal band of followers that will advocate and defend your brand. It doesn’t matter how many followers you have if you’re not giving them a reason to want to talk about you.