Alena Soboleva

Interactive or reactive? Marketing with Twitter

Purpose – Despite rapid growth in organizational use of Twitter, there is little theoretical or empirical research examining how different organisations use Twitter. This paper aims to analyse and compare use of Twitter in 12 accounts held by six organisations in the USA and Australia, drawing on existing models of interactive communications.Design/methodology/approach – The paper is based on analysis of a random sample of tweets sent by each account.Findings – The results demonstrate different ways in which the interactive capabilities of Twitter can be used to communicate with customers. However by also demonstrating lack of consistency in Twitter practice within most organisations, the results reinforce the need for strategic consistency in developing Twitter practice.Research limitations/implications – The results are based on the Twitter practice of 12 organisational accounts in the USA and Australia from December 2009 to May 2010. As with any evolving medium, practices at the different organisations...

Competing voices : marketing and counter-marketing alcohol on Twitter

Excessive alcohol consumption constitutes a global health problem, and despite increasing efforts to promote safe drinking, spending on alcohol advertising far outweighs spending on safe-drinking messages. Twitter represents a new channel for social marketing, but its use to promote safe drinking has not been examined. In this study, six Twitter accounts maintained by advocates of safe drinking and/or abstinence were compared with six accounts maintained by alcohol companies using a mixed-method design. The Twitter accounts of alcohol companies were followed by more people, and their tweets were more likely to use interactive features such as hashtags, to be forwarded to others, and to be associated with positive stimuli, suggesting greater interactivity and influence than prohealth Twitter messages. The results suggest social marketers may benefit from adopting the practices of for-profit marketers to increase the visibility of, engagement with, and influence of their tweets.

Smoke spots: promoting smoking with social media

Article 13 of the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) requires signatories to ‘undertake a comprehensive ban of all tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship’.1 The FCTC defines advertising and promotion very broadly, as any form of commercial communication, recommendation or action with the aim, effect or likely effect of promoting a tobacco product or tobacco use either directly or indirectly.1 The Implementation Guidelines for the FCTC specify that: …a comprehensive ban…applies to all forms of commercial communication, recommendation or action and all forms of contribution to any event, activity or individual with the aim, effect, or likely effect of promoting a tobacco product or tobacco use either directly or indirectly. 2 (Italics as per original.) It is therefore of concern to see that Imperial Tobacco has launched a social media campaign around the ‘Smoke Spots’ website in the UK (http://www.smoke-spots.co.uk). The sites launch was announced on Imperial Tobaccos Twitter account in July 2013, describing Smoke Spots as a ‘website for smokers’ which enables consumers to ‘find bars, restaurants and clubs with smoking facilities as well as locate outlets selling tobacco’.3 Imperial Tobaccos Head of Consumer Marketing was quoted in a company press release to support the launch as saying: ‘With this great new initiative, we are giving our consumers the chance to interact and form an online community where they can share great smoking experiences with each other.’4 The goal of creating an online community where consumers can ‘share great smoking experiences’ would appear to be inconsistent with the FCTCs ban on directly or indirectly promoting tobacco use. In the same press release, Imperial Tobaccos Head of Digital and Marketing Communications implied the purpose …

‘Retweet for a Chance to…’: an analysis of what triggers consumers to engage in seeded eWOM on Twitter

ABSTRACT Twitter provides an important channel for brands to seed electronic word of mouth (eWOM) by followers retweeting brand messages, but prior research has not established a theoretical framework for how brands can maximise eWOM. This study presents and tests a theoretical model incorporating interactive, textual and visual tweet features to predict eWOM, using tweets by leading brands from three industries. Industry was found to be an important moderator of the effect of tweet features; after controlling for the reach and frequency of tweets, hashtags, retweet requests and photos were consistently associated with a higher retweet rate across industries, but the effect of URL links, non-initial mentions and video varied across industries, in some cases decreasing the retweet rate. Implications for research and practice are discussed.

Tweets for tots: using Twitter to promote a charity and its supporters

Purpose Twitter provides an ideal channel for a non-profit organisation (NPO) to add value to its corporate partners by providing the ability to send tweets to its own network of followers. This research aims to examine the extent to which one NPO used Twitter for this purpose and discuss the implications. Design/methodology/approach The research examined tweets sent by a large US-based charitable organisation, Toys for Tots (T4T), across two Christmas periods. All tweets that mentioned or retweeted T4T’s corporate partners were analysed. Findings The findings show surprisingly limited mentions of partners by T4T, with many never mentioned, and markedly fewer mentions of partners in the second period. Separate analysis of partner tweets retweeted by T4T revealed that none was modified to add value for T4T and/or for the partner, and many were unrelated to T4T, raising a risk of alienating T4T’s followers. Research limitations/implications Only one NPO was examined, and the study focused on Twitter, with limited analysis of T4T’s Facebook posts. However, the relatively low, decreasing and largely indirect promotion of partners in T4T’s tweets suggests a lack of strategic use of Twitter by T4T. Practical implications Coupled with other research, the results show the need for this and other NPOs to more effectively use Twitter to reinforce partnerships with corporate partners. Originality/value The results demonstrate the failure of a major US charity to use Twitter to add value for its corporate partners. Even in the unlikely event that this NPO is an isolated case, the results show the need for NPOs and their corporate partners to work together to provide reciprocal benefits.