How Manchester can reach the Twitosphere

Manchester organisations can realise Twitter's true marketing potential by taking inspiration from the city's star accounts, according to a landmark new report.

For the last six months, online marketing agency theEword (http://theeword.co.uk/) has been compiling the first comprehensive study of Manchester Twitter accounts. The free report, entitled the Manchester Twitter Report (http://theeword.co.uk/manchester-twitter-report.php), uses a unique algorithm to judge official accounts on three factors – engagement, popularity and involvement within the Twitter community. Each account is then assigned an overall score, enabling Manchester Twitter accounts to be objectively compared for the very first time.

In the Manchester Twitter Report, accounts are split into eight categories – not for profits, nightlife, leisure services, business, retail, culture, organisations and news and media. Here is a summary of the main findings:

•    Nightlife emerges as a clear winner with 86 points overall, followed by leisure services with 67.2 points. Both categories also demonstrate the strongest engagement levels, tweeting regularly and mixing interactive and broadcast tweets.

•    News and media comes bottom overall with just 34.1 points, behind not for profits with 35.9 points. Both categories are the weakest at engagement, with plenty of broadcast tweets but a near total lack of interaction with other Twitter users.

•    Walrus Bar (@WalrusBar) is the best official account overall with 147.1 points. The account stands out because a constant stream of informal and conversational tweets gives it by far the highest engagement score in the study. Online clothing store FIFTYEIGHT (@FT8) comes second with 119.7 points, followed by club night Clique Manchester (@cliqueclub) with 100.8 points, Base Cafe Bar (@base_cafe_bar) with 99.2 points and design studio Young (@weareyoung) with 97.2 points.

Tom Mason, social media manager at theEword and author of the Manchester Twitter Report, said: "Social media marketing helps build brand awareness, enhance customer loyalty, increase conversions, promote special offers and much more. However, many organisations still have room for improvement. Official accounts often make basic mistakes such as lacking personality, lapsing into unprofessionalism, straying off topic and failing to mix up the scheduling of tweets."

Al Mackin, managing director of theEword, said: "The Manchester Twitter Report shows there are huge variations in how well Manchester uses Twitter marketing. Nightlife and leisure services performed well but not for profits and news and media organisations need to change if they want to take full advantage of social media marketing."

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