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Why Samsung Mobile’s Twitter account is so popular

6 min read

By Matthew Yeoman 06/03/15

Brands & Campaigns

Taking a critical look at the success of others is a key way to gain insight into how you too can succeed at a task. If that task is being a successful branded Twitter account, you can’t look to anyone better than Samsung Mobile for inspiration. They have more followers than any other branded account, their shares are tremendous and their interaction is top-notch.

How did they do this? They’re not as cool as Apple. They don’t have the far-reaching product line of Sony. They don’t have the brand power of Nike. Few would call them the best cell phone manufacturer in the world.

This post is going to look at what they’re doing right, and will show you:

  • @SamsungMobile’s dominance in the branded Twitter account game
  • The tweets that succeeded at meeting various goals

This will give you the best chance of learning from what they have done so that you can do it yourself!

Samsung Mobile’s Popularity on Twitter

I am going to be refer to information from Social Baker’s Twitter data to support this. The first thing to look at is how they compare to other branded Twitter accounts. Here are the top brands on Twitter by follower count:

With over 2.3 million more followers, you can’t touch them. Starbucks are currently growing at a rapid pace, but this may be a gap they can’t close — no matter how many Pumpkin Spice lattes they sell. Samsung’s dominance of Twitter is clearly established.

Tweets that help them reach their goals

Of course, having a lot of Twitter followers never helped anyone on its own. What those followers do is what matters. Samsung has a great strategy for their Twitter account and you can plainly see it by the tweets they share.

The basics for all of their tweets are:

  • They are media saturated — Vine videos, YouTube videos, images and GIFs make their account look great.
  • Every tweet has a relevant hashtag. Most are branded ones they create, but they have joined in on outside hashtags.
  • Smart use of calls to action at the moments they’re needed.

I’ll look at each of these three points in detail using Samsung’s own tweets.

Media saturation

Nearly every single tweet that Samsung sends out has some sort of image or video attached to it. They have one of the best looking Twitter timelines on the service. Here are three tweets, all released in a row, which show their commitment to using media heavily:

That was a Twitter video and two images. You can pick out any three tweets in a row on their whole timeline and you’ll find three media heavy tweets. They also use Vine and YouTube video, embed other tweets, and have custom made infographics that expand on tweet content.

Samsung Mobile know that 140 characters isn’t nearly enough to carry out a sustainable marketing message on Twitter. Their continued dedication to using multi-media helps build their engaged audience, is a key aspect of how they get Twitter followers for free via retweets, and the media-heavy content lets them tell their brand story in a very engaging way.

Samsung Mobile’s use of hashtags

We all know that hashtags are important, but many brands stumble with them. Samsung Mobile have hashtags down perfectly with their own hashtags, like #GalaxyS6 for their ongoing campaign for their newest smartphone, or their #AvengersSamsung hashtag which tied into their involvement with “Age of Ultron”:

https://twitter.com/SamsungMobile/status/594109622887165954

OK, we can’t all afford to have close involvement with one of the biggest movie franchises of all time, but we can create hashtags that tie in with important media events. You’re free to start your own branded hashtag that ties in with a major award show, sporting event, a chat you host, or a special TV program.

Samsung Mobile’s strategy for using hashtags that aren’t their own is inventive. They hashtag pictures of cities, a great idea for the sharp images and media heavy strategy:

Photographers use this trick all the time to gain followers. Finding hashtags that you can join in on is a very important part of a branded Twitter hashtag strategy that you need to tap into to find people who may not have ever found you.

Using call to action to direct behavior

For the most part, Samsung Mobile lets their tweets exist without calls to action. They’re incredibly popular and getting what they want from their audience — retweets and interaction — through excellent content alone.

When they do use calls to action it is for very directed behavior. This tweet has a call to action directing people to their website:

Here they’re urging people to watch a video that using their technology:

In this last one they’re urging fans to join them at future events after the conclusion of one they had just covered on the Twitter account:

Their Twitter strategy doesn’t involve using endless calls to action on every tweet. They pick and choose their spots to get the most from the least effort. Think about how an actual person tweets. Is every tweet full of “Click here NOW to learn more” content, or is most of it simply them sharing their thoughts, images, video, and links? It’s definitely the latter, and you need to know this in your own Twitter marketing.

Samsung Mobile’s example of a complete Twitter marketing strategy

Samsung Mobile has shown you that they got to the top of the Twitter world with a complete marketing plan. The more time you spend analysing their strategy, and applying it to your own, the better your own Twitter marketing will be.

While their budget may be much, much larger than yours, that doesn’t mean you can adapt. Twitter is as close to a level marketing field as you’ll get. IDeas and strategies can scale, you just need the imagination, planning, and to have put in the hours of study to make it happen.

Matthew is a Twitter and social media marketing expert currently writing for Devumi’s Twitter and SMM blog. You can find him there every Friday with a new post for the latest in digital advertising, or you can stop by the Devumi Twitter account for tweets all day!