10 Oct Social Media Report Card: How Well Does Twitter Use Other Social Networks?
Brands are often scrutinized for how well (or poorly) they employ social media best practices. But how well do the networks themselves use social media? I decided to examine Twitter and assess the company’s social media prowess. So how savvy is Twitter at social media marketing? Read on as I hand out the grades.
How Well Does Twitter Use Facebook?
It appears as though this is the Twitter Page on Facebook. I use the word “appears” as the Page is not verified. Whether that is a subtle jab by Facebook or not, it’s hard to say.
Despite the Page having almost 11 million fans, posts only receive several hundred Likes and a similar amount of Shares and Comments. Why? Though content is regular and interesting, posts aren’t aesthetically appealing and the Page manager never seem to ask questions or engage with commenters.
Grade: B-
How Well Does Twitter Use YouTube?
This was by far my favorite part of the review. Twitter is awesome at YouTube and it shows with over 40K subscribers and over 14 million views.
Although, not all of their videos have hundreds of thousands of views, they’re all well produced and many are downright hilarious.
Grade: A
How Well Does Twitter Use Vine?
This one was surprising. Despite owning the popular video-sharing network, Twitter is actually pretty bad at Vine. Despite numerous verified accounts involving a range of topics such as music, business, and sports, there are very few videos created for each account. And the ones that do exist are often old or just not very interesting.
Except for one…
If it wasn’t for this AMAZING vine, the grade would’ve been much lower. Now, why, I ask you, aren’t there more videos like this one? It seems criminal, really.
Grade: C+
How Well Does Twitter Blog?
Twitter actually has six separate blogs. Although the site lists them as different blogs, they are essentially categories ranging in topics from official Twitter news to media to engineering.
Though from earlier this year, this blog post about the geography of Tweets is my favorite by far. The article is a interesting read and has stunning visuals.
The content is fantastic, the writing is well executed, and the blog is updated very regularly. It’s everything you should expect from a great blog… except for one thing: Twitter’s blog design is bland and boring. If it didn’t have the words “The Official Twitter Blog” on it, you might assume it was a fan site. All said, it’s outstanding and demonstrates Twitter knows what it’s doing when it comes to blogging.
Grade: A-
How Well Does Twitter Use Twitter?
Well, no surprise here. Twitter is amazing at Twitter. With dozens of verified accounts covering a wide range of topics, many with hundreds of thousands of followers, it’s difficult not to award Twitter the highest of grades in this category.
The one question you might have is, “Is Twitter just successful on Twitter because the people who use Twitter really like Twitter?” The answer is a resounding “No.” The content is quite solid and very appropriate for each particular audience.
For example, this Tweet about how photos will now be prominent in embedded Tweets… which I just embedded… in a blog post about Twitter.
Putting the photo front and center, now in embedded Tweets: https://t.co/k0bAqOlBpe
— Twitter (@twitter) September 26, 2013
Grade: A+
Final Thoughts: Social Media Best Practices
So, what does this say about social networks as brands? Managing a social network and marketing using social networks are two very different things. And just because you’re good at the former doesn’t guarantee success in the latter. You still have the follow the same best practices as every other brand.
