Planning for Twitter Brand Pages

If you have the enhanced version of Twitter enabled, you can check out them all. They are:  @AmericanExpress, @BestBuy,@bing, @chevrolet, @CocaCola, @Dell, @DisneyPixar, @generalelectric,@Heineken, @HP, @intel, @JetBlue, @Kia, @McDonalds, @nikebasketball, @NYSE_Euronext, Paramount Pictures' Mission: Impossible – @GhostProtocol,@pepsi, @Staples, @subwayfreshbuzz, and @VerizonWireless.

Twitter Brand Pages are scheduled to be released to everyone sometime during the first quarter of 2012, so if you currently operate a branded Twitter handle, the time to think about upgrading to a Brand Page is now.

Why should I upgrade to a Twitter Brand Page?

Twitter Brand pages are useful for companies that want to manage customer relationships, drive awareness, create demand generation, procure leads, augment search efforts, and direct users’ social media experiences. With Brand pages, Twitter seeks to make their website a more mainstream and seamless user experience from Web to mobile to draw fans away from third-party platforms such as HootSuite, where they have less control over revenue streams derived from on-platform advertising.

By driving users directly to Twitter, users will be exposed to Twitter on-platform paid executions and targeting, promoted Tweets, and branded pages. These investments make Twitter more valuable by keeping more  users directly on Twitter while continuing the platform’s rapid user base growth (as it is, Twitter grew 59 percent in 2011). 

Three notable features allow brands to take advantage:

1. Larger header image for displaying logo, tagline, and any other visuals.

2. Pin a top tweet (“promoted tweet”) at the top of the stream so it isn’t buried in the timeline.   This means brands can showcase a top-value tweet and have it appear for each new visitor. This is particularly effective for tweets with images or video as they can be seen inline without the user having to take any action. 

3. Customize a banner slot right beneath account information. Brands can fill it with a promotion or special deal for followers.  See example below.

How to measure effectiveness?

These are the steps needed to ensure you’re measuring the effectiveness of the new features once they are launched:

1. Use top tweets to help drive conversions for campaigns, promotions, sweepstakes; whitepaper downloads, newsletter subscriptions, etc.

2. Add unique identifying parameters to the URL for the top tweet so analytics software can identify traffic coming from it in addition to all conversion-related tweets.

3. Get advice and make sure a professional is helping set these up correctly.

Conclusion

Twitter’s Brand pages will allow brands to feature important and engaging content, connect with target audiences more effectively, and position the brand on its own terms with customizable banners and page layouts not limited to 140 characters.  For help evaluating, planning, or executing your Twitter Brand Page strategy, please send any questions to the Emerging Media team at Gage Marketing at sm@gage.com.  Did I miss any of the essentials? Let me know.