What’s the most engaged brand on Twitter? If you’re like me, you might guess @Starbucks, or @NYTimes, or @Nike, or @NFL. After all, they’re all well known brands with at least one million followers, and they all have huge advertising budgets. But none of these are the most engaged. Incredibly, the number one most engaged brand on Twitter is probably one you haven’t heard of – but it’s a good bet you’ve seen one or two of its tweets in your timeline.
Branden Hampton is the creator of @Notebook (also known as Notebook of Love), the most influential brand on Twitter according to a study of the top 25 most engaged brands. Notebook of Love shares inspirational quotes and thoughts about love with its 4.5 million followers, typically seeing thousands of retweets, replies and mentions with every tweet.
In fact, Notebook of Love garners 40 percent more engagement than any other brand on the list. It sees an average of 1403 responses per tweet, and the next closest (one of Disney’s handles) sees 1,000. Never having spent a single dollar on marketing and relying strictly on organic growth, Notebook is not only highly engaged, it’s also extremely profitable.
And it’s not just a fluke, either: Hampton’s company Influential Media Group manages dozens of Twitter handles that collectively reach more than 30 million followers, helping celebrities, athletes, musicians and brands engage with their fans. Each of these branded Twitter channels has a unique opportunity to appeal to a certain kind of advertiser – women’s perfume or fitness solutions on Notebook of Love, for instance – a business that Hampton sees as the next evolution of the print ad.
So how did Hampton skyrocket past some of the most recognizable brands in the world to build the top commercial Twitter account?
In his words: “It all has to do with creating highly resonating content.”
In Hampton’s eyes, too many brands make the mistake of selling their Twitter followers on their product, focusing on the company’s information rather than information that is actually relevant to the everyday lives of their followers.
He says the secret to success as a business on Twitter is conveying the industry’s message, not your business’. When your followers learn that you’re an industry expert, they’ll trust your business when they look for a product in that industry.
Hampton explains that a jeweler, for example, shouldn’t tweet all day about their latest collections or newest diamonds. Instead, they should tweet checklists for brides, awesome proposal videos and tips on handling wedding stress. Their followers will see them as an expert, and are more likely to trust – and purchase from – them when they’re ready to take the plunge.
Not only do businesses need to shift their messaging away from company specifics and toward the industry in general, but they also need to create content that actually applies to the lives of their followers.
“If I say I’m in line a Starbucks, nobody is going to retweet that. Somebody might engage and reply, but the response rate will be very low. But if I sent a similar tweet that said “I hate waiting in lines”, that would resonate so much higher. A bunch of people would respond saying they agree, they also hate waiting in line. And others would retweet it to resonate with their own followers, because it’s a message they can directly relate to, and that can be applied to anyone.”
“It’s not quite so simple as “Tweet more content and fewer ads”, but that’s the main thing people can do on their own to increase their engagement.”
#2 Respond To Everyone. Yes, Everyone.
Another way brands can improve their engagement is to respond to every single tweet that’s sent their way. Hampton says that responding to everyone who tweets to his personal account or his brand accounts is an essential part of his engagement philosophy.
Whether you’re managing an international brand like Nike, or a local deli, it’s important to say thank-you to every follower who asks a question, has a problem, or gives you a compliment. Some will respond back, and others will retweet your response simply because they want to show their friends that you’ve engaged with them.
In this way, Hampton explains, you’re not just engaging with a single follower, you’re engaging with a much wider audience.
Hampton has created not just Notebook of Love – which has 4.35 million followers, most of which are women between the age of 20 to 35 – but also a number of other Twitter accounts that produce content geared towards a variety of different sub-communities.
“We have, for example, a skincare account with 730,000 followers on Twitter, we have a fitness account with 1.3 million followers, and we have the love account, which is the Notebook, with 4.35 million. So if we are not the top most engaging page in every category, we’re absolutely in the top three in each of those categories.”
The content strategy Hampton has in place to achieve such success in the categories he’s targeted is pretty unique: rather than write all the content himself, he’s hired experts in their field to be the voice of each of these ultra-successful accounts.
In fact, Notebook of Love is managed by Hampton’s fiancé, Stephanie Perez. She is the face of the account, and does all the content creation and engagement, while Hampton himself oversees the behind-the-scenes logistics and business decisions – an arrangement similar to his other juggernaut Twitter brands.
“It’s about finding the right people to create the right content that resonates very well. I train people on creating highly resonate content, and then they can use that information along with their specific expertise and knowledge to create compelling content for that account’s followers.”
Hampton’s philosophy of using experts to produce compelling content that is relevant to an account’s followers, while ensuring that no mention or reply goes unanswered, has earned him the top spot in the 25 most engaged brands on Twitter.
That alone is incredible especially with a very limited budget. Follow his winning strategies and you too may be generating as much engagement as the largest brands in the world.
