Twitter Segmentation
Business Analysis
The Challenge
If you’re a direct-selling cosmetics company, you understand, at first blush, the importance of social networking. And if you’re one of the world’s largest direct-selling cosmetics companies, you make social media a top priority for engaging your customers and incentivizing sales reps.
This particular beauty company wanted to understand how their reps and customers use social media. They wanted to communicate more effectively with them. And they were specifically interested in analyzing Twitter.
Twitter is one of the largest and most popular social media sites in the world, and the beauty company had already built a strong following. They engaged 50,000 followers with contests, special offers, and beauty tips.
But they wanted to do more. They felt they could enhance the effectiveness of their Twitter feeds through a better understanding of their followers. They wanted to know more about their lifestyles. Their interests. Who else they were following.
They came to MSA for answers.
What Did MSA Do
Using a relatively new and sophisticated product called Twitter Follower Segmentation, our Business Analysis (BA) division got to work, extracting data on all of the client’s Twitter followers. A key advantage of this technique is that Twitter provides data for free.
We looked for what ‘friends’ the followers followed, how many people followed the followers, and how often the followers Tweeted. Turns out you can learn a lot about a person’s interests and lifestyle by studying their Twitter habits.
- Beauty & Social Media Tools – These followers don’t Tweet a lot or have a lot of followers, but they over-index on the beauty company’s other Twitter accounts and for social media management tools.
- Fashion News & Comedy – These followers have average Twitter activity. Their primary interests are fashion industry news and an eclectic mix of adult humor and politics. This also suggests a more professional demographic.
- Cutting Edge Beauty – Followers in this segment are more active on Twitter, and are very focused on the newest fashion trends. They have a strong interest in trying new products and follow beauty sites with edgy, dramatic looks as well as sites focusing on samples of the latest products.
- Music & TV – These followers are big on Tweeting, and are distinguished by their interest in entertainment. They follow personalities from reality TV shows and pop music stars.
Our BA team provided the beauty company with an overview of the unique aspects of each segment. We also provided suggestions for targeting each segment.
The Results
- The segmentation study helped the cosmetics company extend its traditional word-of-mouth direct-sell model into the broader reach of social media.
- The study identified top candidates for “Get This Look” videos and uncovered strong interest in dramatic, theatrical fashion styles.
- Insights also suggested a need for bundled sample packs rather than individual samples.
- MSA improved the effectiveness of the client’s Twitter account by identifying follower interests and guiding tailored content.
For more information on this MSA solution, please contact Kevin Mason (kmason@msa.com), Vice President.
