Twitter is one of those social media platforms where we constantly see brands fail. Whether its an intern sending an impersonal tweet or a poorly time sales pitch, it can be easy to negatively affect your brand. For my third installment of Socially Speaking, I’m focusing on +Adagio Teas. They were an early adopter on Twitter and I think that they make a great case study.
- Get There First
Adagio joined Twitter around the same time that I did, September of 2008. Those were the good ol’ days. Tea culture in the U.S. and Twitter were still in their infancy. No one really knew what they were doing back then but we knew that Twitter was one of the few places where we could connect with other tea lovers. Know where your customer is and be present there as soon as you can. Whether that platform is +Twitter, +Steepster or some other platform; try to put down roots before your competitors do.
- Keep Your Username Simple
Keep your username short, simple and to the point. That can be difficult as there is a limit of 15 characters but it is important that your Twitter handle be as close to your company name as possible. The kicker is that there is not much you can do if your name is already taken. The name @adagio is taken by an inactive account so they went with @AdagioTeas.
- Be Responsive, Be Human
I know I say this about all social networks but it’s really the one concept that every one should learn, social media is for interacting! No one wants to follow a brand who does nothing but tweet links to their own website. Adagio does a great job of replying to most of the tweets they receive in a fun and engaging way. One look at their tweets with replies shows that they are very active. One way to check how your brand is doing is see what your rating is on Twtrland. 83.3% of Adagio Teas’ tweets are replies. That is huge for a brand! My own rating is 74.3% and I am fairly active myself.
- Cut Down On The Clutter
Less is more when it comes to Twitter. Adagio sends out an average of 1.5 tweets per day. There’s room for a bit more chatter there but it’s better than talking too much. Auto-sending posts from your Facebook page to Twitter is a big faux pas. If your followers wanted to see those posts they would like your page there! The same thing goes for RT’s. Sharing the love when your customers having something awesome to say about your brand is great but don’t over do it. I’ll let you in on a secret, I turn retweets off for almost all of my followers. It helps me to cut down on the clutter so that I don’t miss updates that are important to me.
- Give An Insider’s Perspective
Twitter gives you a chance to get up close and personal with your customers. Give them an insight into the daily goings on at your company. Adagio has done a great job of this by sharing the stages of their recent warehouse move as well as random shots around their Garfield, NJ facility. Showing how the tea is stored and the way that orders get packed helps to build familiarity and trust.
Adagio does a lot of things right when it comes to Twitter but there are two small things I want to point out two things that could be better. If you look closely, the word Farm-fresh is spelled wrong on their profile description. This is a really small detail that takes away some polish from what would otherwise be a very well designed page. My other nitpick is that they are are only following 78 people despite having 20.3K followers. These profiles are seemingly random and often not even related to tea. Show your followers some love! Everyone does a little happy dance when their favorite brand follows back.
Is there something you’d like to see covered in this series? Let me know in the comments and you just might see in the next installment!