Pets At Work: A Twitter Marketing Case Study

What started as a modest Tweet for National Pet Day, turned into a great example of Twitter marketing done well.

One of TheeTeam members, Heather Curtis, tweeted from her personal account about #NationalPetDay and it caught the pet food brand Purina’s attention. They were clearly monitoring the #NationalPetDay hashtag for opportunities to chat with people and they found a good person to talk to! Heather pulled TheeDigital into the conversation which gave us an opportunity to share a photo of our office Chihuahua, Micki, sporting a branded t-shirt. Well, Purina may or may not have thought the lil Chihuahua was a cat… regardless, their response to our image had the entire office roaring in laughter! Well, not everyone on TheeTeam was in chuckles. Some of the dog lovers decided to up the ante and have the puppy Sam step in… …which led to more witty responses from Purina. Alas, once our social media team saw the tweet come through from Purina about a conference call, it was near the end of the work day and time to wrap up the fun.

All of this is great, but what does this mean for your business?

It can mean a lot of things! Who would of thought that a Raleigh web design agency would be having an engaging conversation with a pet food company on Twitter? If you are a business owner, we suggest taking a look at the following tips from our conversation with Purina and find out how people are marketing in today’s social media world.

Claim your branded account early.

TheeDigital has been active on Twitter since 2009 and Purina since 2011. By claiming your social media accounts early, you not only prevent someone from using your brand name (i.e. the 100s of Justin Beiber Twitter accounts out there) but you also get the opportunity to engage with your customers early on before anyone else gets to them.

Monitor brand mentions and relevant keywords.

There are a variety of ways to track keywords using tools like Tweetdeck, Hootsuite, or more powerful tools like Radian 6. You want to always be aware of brand or product mentions so that you can respond appropriately and handle customer service issues if needed.

Engage with your audience on topics that are important to THEM.

Purina doesn’t rely on income from your pet going to work… they just want to sell more pet food! But the savvy social media managers for Purina understand that #PetsAtWork is important to their target market. By monitoring and joining conversations related to #PetsAtWork and #NationalPetDay, they are able to find opportunities for engagement. And by joining those topics of conversation in meaningful and creative ways, they gain trust and valuable brand recognition from potential pet food buyers.

Use great images!

Images and videos are powerful in social media no matter if you’re using Twitter, Facebook, or G+. Purina’s team knows this and created funny captions on cute pictures of pets in office settings. They are relatable, funny and thus, shareable!

Remember: Social media is about relationships and NOT asking for sales.

Long term social media success is about being engaging, which is why Purina focused the conversation on pets and not on products.

Major Takeaway:

There are opportunities to engage with potential customers ALL around. It simply takes a little creativity (and sometimes dog treats)! Special thanks to our new friends at Purina! Follow them on Twitter @Purina.

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