The new Twitter layout offers even more opportunities for brands to use the profile header image for marketing purposes. While filling your brand’s Twitter header image with marketing messages isn’t a good idea, using the space for creative marketing can be very effective.
There are a few tricks to leveraging this new visual space to drive improved marketing results. First, this space is big and bold, so make sure the content you put in that space is timely. Second, tie the content in this space to the Twitter audience by integrating Twitter activities into your offer or message. Third, create special offers that can only be accessed via Twitter and promote them in this new space.
Examples of each of these tricks can already be found on brand Twitter profiles. To get your creative juices flowing, here are some great examples to benchmark. Notice that these brands come from different categories and market to different audiences, which demonstrates that any brand can leverage Twitter, particularly the new Twitter profile layout, for brand marketing.
An Exclusive Twitter Offer from Amazon
Take a look at the Twitter profile header image for Amazon. There are a bunch of great brand marketing things going on here. First, the header image provides very simple instructions to use Twitter to shop on Amazon.
Next, take a look at the first tweet in the Amazon Twitter stream. It is a tweet that has been pinned to the top of the Amazon Twitter stream promoting a specific product (a banana slicer at the time of this article’s writing). As the instructions in the profile header explain, all you have to do is send a reply to that tweet, including the Twitter hashtag #AmazonCart, and the item will be added instantly to your shopping cart in your Amazon profile. You can visit Amazon at anytime in the future to finish your transaction. As the instructions in the header image explain, you can do this with any tweet from Amazon that includes a specific product link. Shopping on Amazon just got easier!
Timely Content from Axe
As mentioned at the beginning of this article, keeping your brand’s Twitter profile header image current with timely content and offers is very important, and AXE does this very well. At the time of this article’s writing, AXE was offering products with special X-Men-themed packaging and a free movie poster, so in the days leading up to the movie’s premiere, the AXE Twitter header was also X-Men-themed. It’s current, attention-getting, and very smart.
Timely Content Integrated with Twitter Activities from Coca-Cola
In the days leading up to the 2014 Word Cup Tournament, which will be held in Brazil, Coca-Cola launched a promotion inviting people to submit photos via the HappinessFlag.com website to be included in what would become the world’s largest photo mosaic flag. Inviting people to participate in the project via the Coca-Cola Twitter header image piqued visitors’ curiosity about the project and provided an excellent example of promoting a brand experience through the Twitter header image rather than promoting a product. It’s very creative and works perfectly.
Twitter Activity Integration from Louis Vuitton
Luxury brands can leverage the new Twitter profile layout, too. For Louis Vuitton, the larger header image allows the brand to showcase its new web show with a vibrant and intriguing image paired with a hashtag that was created for all Twitter communications related to the show. Rather than promoting a specific product, Louis Vuitton is promoting its show, which provides another way to experience the brand.
As you can see from the examples above, how you use the new Twitter profile layout for brand marketing can vary depending on your goals, audience, and strategies, but no matter the category or target audience you’re trying to connect with via Twitter, you’re missing an opportunity if you’re not leveraging the new layout.
Susan Gunelius is the author of 10 marketing, social media, branding, copywriting, and technology books, and she is President & CEO of KeySplash Creative, Inc., a marketing communications company. She also owns Women on Business, an award-wining blog for business women. She is a featured columnist for Entrepreneur.com and Forbes.com, and her marketing-related articles have appeared on websites such as MSNBC.com, BusinessWeek.com, TodayShow.com, and more.
She has over 20 years of experience in the marketing field having spent the first decade of her career directing marketing programs for some of the largest companies in the world, including divisions of AT&T and HSBC. Today, her clients include large and small companies around the world and household brands like Citigroup, Cox Communications, Intuit, and more. Susan is frequently interviewed about marketing and branding by television, radio, print, and online media organizations, and she speaks about these topics at events around the world. You can connect with her on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, or Google+.
