Analyzing Powtoon’s First Twitter Chat
Or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Trust The Process
Well, that was fun.
Actually, the whole process was fun. In fact, the whole concept of hosting a Twitter chat is pretty exciting. Not only that, but it proved to be a truly engaging way to connect with our followers. Twitter is its own universe, so for the uninitiated, a Twitter chat is a combination of a live interview chat and an AMA — all conducted via tweet.
Here is a quick analysis of the process we followed and the immediate results it yielded.
Anticipa-yay-tion
We posted a bunch of promotional images, adding to the hype online and in our marketing department. We got ready all day in anticipation of the event itself and once it got started we were all having a blast… All three of us, that is.
When looking back on Powtoon’s first-ever Twitter chat, it’s not so easy to declare it a success or a failure. Did we fail to interact with even a tenth of our Twitter followers? Yes. Even with a small number of participants, was the engagement (and “impression afterglow”) we achieved significant? Yes. Did we succeed in pulling off a whole new exciting campaign and create a partnership with an awesome tech company along the way? Yes.
So, considering the chat could be considered hit and miss, why would continue to pursue hosting Twitter chats in the future? It’s pretty simple, really:
The best time to plant a tree is 20 years ago. The next best time is now. — Chinese proverb
Since its inception, social media has been known for a few “tropes” upon which it appeared to not only be founded, but also upon which it thrived for many years. These included the idea that companies had to be active on social media simply because everyone else was, the concept that paid social marketing wasn’t worth the money, and (of course) how social media was essentially a bulletin board for all of your company’s updates.
It’s 2018. We’ve learned from the past (hopefully). There are plenty of articles on this very site discussing how you should invest in your social media, how your social efforts should be engagement based and the importance of being yourself on social media.
We understand now that there’s a process — a give and take, if you will. We scratch your back you scratch ours… and a million other clichés that actually apply to the correct way to run your social media presence. It’s all about engagement and interaction instead of self-promotion. Once we internalized that on the marketing team, that’s when the Twitter chat idea really took shape.
We knew this was something that we had to do now.
Big Engagement Bang — Small Marketing Investment
With very minimal cost / time / effort (and even less from our chat guest), we could host the Twitter chat only a few weeks out from when we brainstormed the idea. We could interact with a brand that was relevant to our space and to our users. We could do something fresh on one of our leading social media networks, and potentially see some exciting results.
For context, we don’t generally see much engagement from all those tens of thousands of followers on our Twitter page. We were especially hoping this Twitter chat could change that. And herein lies the differentiator for success that I mentioned earlier. Have a look at this chart:
We received nearly 30,000 impressions for our tweets on the day of the chat itself (23,000 of which were during the two-hour period of the chat) and several thousand more the following day as spillover from the event.
We reinvigorated our marketing team with a love of Twitter and interacting with other companies and individuals over the network.
We had coworkers from our creative and R&D teams get involved in the chat on their own.
And, most importantly, since the event itself, we’ve secured upcoming chats with two leading tech companies, taking place in August and September (stay tuned!).
BUT! We only really had four (yes, 4) people interact with our chat.
Achieving that kind of active engagement, and seeing our actions echo across Twitter sure felt like a success.
Now that our first Twitter chat is behind is, we have to simultaneously understand what worked (and what didn’t work), and how to adapt to the future. It’s all about trusting the process and learning the best way to engage with our community of followers.
What Comes Next
Resting on our laurels is the last thing we plan to do. Our following clearly responded to our chat, and we can’t wait to do our next one. We’re looking forward to interacting with new companies, discussing social media and marketing with Twitter users from all around the world, and continuing to learn more about our place in the social media universe.
If you want to check out the tweets from the recent Twitter chat, plus stay on top of updates for upcoming chats, head to Twitter and search for #Powchat. We’re looking forward to you joining the conversation!
