Brands on Twitter - who's best to follow?

There are many brands on Twitter today who know how to use social media as a customer relations tool. So what is their secret?

It's simple they are dedicated to customer service. The impact of customer feedback is widespread throughout the social network, and big brands on Twitter are engaging with their customers more than ever.

Top Brands on Twitter

This list contains some fantastic examples of big brands on Twitter and how they're connecting with their customers.

• Adidas - 285,000 followers. They gained lots of followers after the London 2012 Olympics, Nick Craggs, UK marketing director at Adidas, saying Twitter was an "important platform, which allows us to have a constant dialogue with both the next generation athletes, and fans of the brand".

• McDonalds - 516,000 followers. With uplifting and positive tweets, they give customers a reason to follow, it's not all about selling products. Each MacDonalds Twitter representative signs tweets with their initials for a human touch. Rick Wion, McDonald’s social media director said that “People want to connect with actual people on Twitter.”

• Coca-Cola - 566,000 followers. Amazing results occurred when they experimented with paid advertising on Twitter. Coca-Cola sponsored a 'trending topic' using 'promoted tweets' to get involved in an online discussion regarding football.

• Pepsi- 848,000 followers. When Pepsi first joined Twitter they ensured that they responded to customer's comments quickly in response to their new brand design. Shiv Singh, global head of digital at PepsiCo said that "We also found that when you put conversation at the centre of ads, you get big results. You can't have strong push messages on social. The brand has to be in the current of culture and conversation."
• Playstation - 1,329,000 followers. They know what their customer's are interested in and therefore Tweet relevant and interesting content, including uploading pictures regularly are important to give the audience captivating visuals.

• Starbucks - 2,625,000 followers. Last year they claimed 5.1 million Twitter impressions because of a free Latte giveaway, more than 25,000 tweets were sent using the #freestarbucks hashtag. Ian Cranna, vice president of marketing and category for Starbucks UK said that ' There was great online buzz and we were among Twitter’s top trending topics in the UK which just goes to show how much of a talking point our new latte has become.”

Why should you follow them?

Following the big brands on Twitter is a good idea. There are thousands of social media marketing strategies that you can read and implement on your campaigns, but its useful to see how others are doing it. Learning from the big players gives you inspiration, you witness more advanced approaches to getting more followers and retweets. Well established brands are most likely going to have a wider reach than you, but seeing how they engage with customers is valuable, free and gets you involved with the current social media trends.

So why don't you see what the big brands on Twitter are doing? You never know, it could help you more than you realise!

Or for more information have a look at our Social Media Marketing page