Cracking the Twitter code: Getting brand campaigns to trend

Twitter is becoming bigger and bigger as a communication channel in the country, with the latest estimates saying the platform has 33 million monthly active users in India. For any brand serious about digital marketing, Twitter is a platform that cannot be ignored. But the rules of the game on Twitter are different from other platforms, given its fast-paced conversational nature and low attention spans. While these are still early days for many businesses who are still building a basic presence on Twitter, there are early signs of some brand campaigns managing to create significant buzz.

Webitude (www.thewebitude.com), a Gurgaon-based Agency seems to be one that’s cracked the Twitter code – it recently conducted a Twitter campaign for job portal Shine.com around its new communication ‘Yaar Tu God Hai’, with the core proposition ‘a friend can now help you get your next job’.

On Jun 11, 2013, a contest with the hashtag #YaarTuGodHai was run where Tweeple were asked to tweet various scenarios where they would say to their friends ‘YaarTuGodHai’.  Tweets were also seeded on the lines of how friends can also get you a job through Facebook, to create awareness about Shine’s new product feature along the same lines. The contest was live for several hours, and generated such a massive response that the hashtag started trending All India within a mere 15 minutes launch. Hundreds of participants engaged, who ended up tweeting 15000+ Tweets during the period, and over 3 million users were reached throughout the activity. The hashtag trended at #1 India for 27 hours straight and was at #4 Worldwide for few hours, helping Shine.com’s handle (@Shinedotcom) gain over 400 followers within a day.

Recently, the team at Webitude has also made major impact on Twitter with another campaign, for the Hindustan Times No TV Day on Jun 1st -  with two key hashtags trending on two separate days -  #htnotvday, which trended at #1 both India and worldwide and #onnotvdayiwill ( which trended at #1 in India, and #3 worldwide)

When asked to provide a few simple mantras that brands can keep in mind to become a part of the Twitter conversation, the leadership team at Webitude had this to say -

"The average attention span of a microblogging platform, the speed at which conversations change, is roughly 2 to 3 minutes. If you can get enough people to jump on a conversation in that time, they will take the conversation to new levels and then it gets a life of its own. That's how things trend." –Santosh Kumar, Co-founder & Business Head, Webitude

"The virality of an idea on Twitter is the simplicity of its thought and usage. Simple ideas that connect with everyday life and have an element of humour are what have the potential to spread like wild fire." –Girish Mahajan Co-founder & Strategy Head, Webitude

"Keep it simple, keep it relevant and add humour. Start a conversation that has these three and give it a catchy phrase or word that becomes the hashtag and you have a perfect combination for a trending topic. It really is as simple as that." –Mervin Naik , Creative Director, Webitude

So the mantras are - speed, simplicity, relevance, humor, and a catchy hashtag. However, the rules of the game are going to keep changing - it’s going to be an interesting journey ahead in the next few months as more brands use Twitter in different ways, trying to become a part of the conversation. #watchthisspaceformore !