Visiting Twitter was always going to be exciting for me. I’ve been using Twitter for such a long time now, I can’t remember exactly when I started but it’s a long time ago! I have three accounts I tweet from (personal, menswear related for The Man Has Style and of course, Polka Dot Marketing), and it has been one of my favourite ways to communicate with like-minded people from around the globe.

While at times it’s a disjointed communication, it’s also a direct way of communicating. Read a book, you send a tweet of gratitude to the author, next thing you know, you get a reply back. You automatically feel connected to the author even more than by simply reading their story. I’ve met some amazing friends over Twitter, made connections with some of the best in the industry, organised media stories, chatted about the most simple and every day topics along with more important human rights issues. Whatever it is on Twitter, it feels real. For me, I look to it for information. When something is happening in the world, my first port of call is Twitter. How is it playing out in the world and how do people feel about it? I love that it’s giving you opinions that are varied and show different view points. I always feel it helps broaden your thinking, gives you perspectives you may not have thought of before. It doesn’t mean you agree, but you definitely can give other peoples opinions a moment to take in.

I follow brands I love, as well as brands I want to know more about. I connect with them and want to know what is important to them. It allows me to have a two way interaction. The brands I feel myself becoming loyal to are the ones that reach out. The ones answering, joining in the conversation. The ones showing passion for what they do. Encouraging others to be their best and to help others. I don’t follow the brands that are offering sales or discounts or trying to sell at every step. To me, Twitter is about learning about someone, something or in this case in point, a brand. Saying that, if there is a sale then possibly I may look, but only if the brand is not doing this every step of the way. The main focus would need to be their story and their ethics, their conversation and their involvement.

Over the years, I have seen that connection between people and brands. How this organic growth in loyalty and the regular connection are not only about following their journey, but being part of it. The brands I see answering the hard questions are the ones that I have more respect for. Brands that are answering the complaints. Owning up to mistakes, showing the human side to the brand. The balance between keeping that personal feeling but professional can be difficult for big brands, but by constantly evaluating how they are interacting and what is being communicated with their tweets, it is something that is an ever evolving process.

The morning started with a great breakfast, nice strong coffee and a chance to mingle and chat with other people there as well as those working with Twitter. I spent so much of the time on Twitter and posting about it, I think there was more online interaction that face to face interaction but my joy was apparent in both! The presentation was fantastic and great to see Twitter paying attention to the Australian market.

There were so many stats the Twitter team took us through that were of interest. The usage in Australia between Male (52%) and Female (48%) were almost even, with the majority of users falling into the 25-34 age group (28%), followed closely by 16-24 and 35-44 (both 23%). The dedication to Twitter amongst users is strong with 54% using Twitter daily.  Information driven content from companies about their products was the biggest thing users wants from Twitter (40%), to be entertained (39%) and also the expectation for brands to improve their knowledge (38%). It’s quite interesting the stats and further shows the use of Twitter as an information source.

Those key influencers are strong on Twitter with 44% of users classified as influencers. Pretty good considering they are the highest of all the social media platforms including YouTube (40%) and Facebook (37%). Good news for brands is they not only buy more, but they also recommend more.

Those Tweets with rich media have 313% more engagement! That’s big! They also have a 52% more chance to be have a retweet. We went through the impact of video and how 72% of users saw the brands in a more positive light about those featured in videos. With 60% saying they were relevant to them. With a 54% retweet rate for videos and 25% showing their family and friends on their mobile (who may not even be on Twitter, the reach is powerful.

Of course, it wasn’t all stats and advertising info, we also played some games. I was a little excited for getting through the fun competition of Twitter knowledge – from correctly answering Eric as the name of the Twitter bird to the final question of Katy Perry having the most followers in the world. As a fan of Twitter, and a regular user, I see the strong benefits for brands to be using it – but only if they are committed. Be there for your brand, for you customers and for people to learn about what you do. If your brand is on Twitter – be there and embrace it.

Words by Sarah Crawford

* Source of the stats was listed by Twitter as Research Now, Australia, April 2015.