What drives consumer action? A new Twitter study titled “Discovering the Value of Earned Audiences” reveals that when consumers are exposed to brand-based tweets, this positively affects their online and offline behavior.

The study findings were revealing.

Consumers engage with brands, they don’t just follow them. The study confirmed that brands drive the conversation on Twitter and improve the way people interact with them. Active brands tend to have not just passive followers, but potential consumers that are keen to engage with that brand.

People don’t see brands as remote, faceless companies; they see a media-savvy company as a responsive, social, and friendly entity they can engage in conversation with, a fact that adds further importance in how much leverage brands actually have over consumer opinion.

Brand engagement on Twitter improves consumer action. The study revealed that half of the 12,000 study respondents took action immediately after seeing a brand tweet. This action included visiting the brand’s site or Twitter page.

Brand engagement improves purchase decisions. The figures are indeed telling; almost 1 in 5 Twitter users will eagerly retweet a tweet that mentions a brand. And the same percentage (19%) is contemplating a purchase after being exposed to a brand-related tweet, proof that brand-based social engagement does drive consumer behavior.

Non-brand originating tweets encourage more action from consumers. When tweets originate from a non-brand related source, then Twitter users are more likely to take some online or offline action related to that brand. Only 43% of the survey respondents confirmed that brand-initiated tweets encouraged them to act.

Other important figures to consider:

8 in 10 respondents said they had mentioned a brand in their own Twitter activity at some point during the measurement period (September 2013 – March 2014).

20% of the respondents said they do online research on a brand after being exposed to a brand tweet.

About 58% of the 13-to-17 age group take action after being exposed to a brand tweet.

This Twitter study is revealing for both big and smaller brands and companies. Social media marketing does pay off as consumers engage with brands in ways that are profitable and beneficial for the brand.

By crafting shareable tweets you can increase user engagement with your brand or product and ultimately even boost your sales. Remember that a compelling tweet needs the following ingredients:

– Relevant and targeted vocabulary
– Catchy intro
– A call to action
– An image or video
– Original, witty content
– Brevity
– Tweet (about) news

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